It’s amusing to watch people maintain that Sanders isn’t a genuine socialist because he hasn’t laid out a Five Year Plan or called for the means of production to be transferred to the state. (Last night, for example, CNN’s Van Jones continually referred to Sanders as a “progressive” — which tells us something about socialism and progressivism.) Socialists are always “democratic” when they have no choice. The fun part comes later. So Sanders might inject a measure of nationalism into his brand of socialism. He may fuse his old-fashioned redistributionism and class-warfare with some contemporary political flourishes. He may believe in incrementalism — just as Marx did. But Sanders does not believe a free market should determine how goods and services are distributed.

Moreover, his applause lines are no less scaremonger-y than Trump’s nativist crowd-pleasers. Sanders is no less of a protectionist, appealing to the same fears and anxieties of working class Americans. All the troubles in the world are laid at the feet of greedy billionaires and corporation who function in an imaginary zero-sum economic dystopia, where fairness can only be reinstituted using state force — the guiding light of all decency.

Sanders calls for government control of the energy (to stop global warming) and health-care sectors. And schooling and health care will be “free,” paid for by the fictitious capital of the disreputable speculator. “Where speculation ends — in real life — there real, positive science begins …” wrote Marx.