Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), America’s best-known socialist, took fire from both the so-called liberal media and the reactionary blogosphere over the weekend after he was spotted sporting a $700 winter coat while swearing in New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio for his second term earlier this week.
“SOCIALIST BERNIE SANDERS WEARS A $700 JACKET WHILE COMPLAINING ABOUT RICH PEOPLE,” Newsweek indignantly screamed. The right-wing Daily Wire, which broke the “story,” mocked the “man of the people,” snarking that “the progressive look has a price.”
Yes, it’s true, Sanders owns a $690 Burton 2L LZ down jacket. And while true socialists might find fault with some of Burton’s business practices — it is a capitalistic enterprise, after all, they must admit it gets really, really cold in Vermont this time of the year. A good winter coat is anything but a luxury up there. And it was colder than Dick Cheney’s borrowed heart at DeBlasio’s inauguration on Monday — New York City daytime “high” temperatures peaked out around 19°F. That’s -7 for those of you from countries where “socialist” isn’t a four-letter word.
“By Vermont standards this is a warm and pleasant afternoon,” Sanders joked. As they say in Sweden, that great bastion of democratic socialism, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.
Sanders also earns $174,000 as a member of Congress, plus more than $850,000 in book royalties last year, according to Newsweek. Yes, that definitely makes him part of that One Percent against which he so often rails. It also means that spending $690 on a winter coat isn’t all that big of a deal. It cost less than one tenth of one percent of his annual income. It’s about the same as someone who earns $50,000 buying a $50 coat. Good luck braving bombogenesis or even your garden variety nor’easter in one of those!
But here I go getting defensive about a choice that should require no defending. There is absolutely nothing wrong or hypocritical about socialists having nice things. Democratic socialism is about economic justice, not economic privation. Anyone who’s ever lived in or even visited Europe knows there are plenty of socialists walking around in expensive coats. There is no US-style derision of “limousine liberals” there; when I lived in Italy, I owned two winter coats, both of them costing significantly more than Sanders’, all while railing incessantly against the evils of corporate capitalism. No one saw anything incongruous about this. A socialist’s wardrobe need not consist of Che t-shirts and Mao jackets.
Those waxing sanctimonious over Sanders’ sartorial splurge would do better to focus on the senator’s record of tirelessly fighting to improve the lives of middle-, low-, and no-income Americans. Also, while slamming the few hundred dollars spent on a coat, why not note the many thousands of dollars Sanders has donated to charity over the years?
The criticism of Sanders by so-called “liberal” corporate media outlets — which serve as faithful mouthpieces for a ruling elite that perpetuates widening economic inequality, a potentially existential threat to our nation’s survival — is personal. For I, too, am a democratic socialist, and I also like nice things. And I’ve taken my share of shit, from both the right and the left, because of it. To many on the right, I’m a “limousine liberal.” To some on the far left, I’m something of an ideological traitor because, among other “crimes,” I’ve purchased a home — gentrifier! — and sometimes dine in fancy restaurants.
I would remind those on the right that, despite what Margaret Thatcher said, socialism isn’t about everyone being equally impoverished, its about everyone having equal opportunity to flourish. I would remind my far-left comrades that while the devil may wear Prada, wearing Prada doesn’t necessarily make one the devil. And to those who would begrudge old Bernie Sanders rocking a $690 coat, ask yourselves, does this in any way spoil his lifelong fight for peace, justice and equality for all?