I agree that throwing around the words socialist or socialism does more harm then good and therefore is a branding/messaging problem especially in a country where most people who might object to anything Bernie Sanders promotes gets their information from talk radio, podcasts or Fox news where they are mostly told what to think and believe about socialism. I think Bernie and other progressives run into another problem though. They tend to go for these really big agendas where they try to get too much all at once. I think they would be better served by focusing on one things and if/when they achieve it give the public time to experience it and see the benefits. Like with the ACA all the talking heads had most people on the right believing it was too much and was just going to destroy healthcare and end up costing too much. Once it got passed though and people actually experienced how they benefited from it all of a sudden people started liking some of the things it brought them and then even people who were once against it didn't want the Republicans taking it away. When you start throwing a bunch of things out all at once people start to panic and just see it as becoming a huge burden financially and they resist even trying. Free College, Student debt forgiveness, expanded single payer healthcare, holy shit Bernie, you're going to bankrupt the country. Of course the response is always no problem we'll just tax the rich, it will be great, you'll see. Then you get the usual response, generally from the rich that you're punishing success or robbing the rich to pay the poor and since the wealthy have too much control over government none of it ever flies. So just go for one thing at a time, let people see how good it can be in spite of the messaging on the right and then go for the next thing.
