Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden ripped democratic socialist rival Bernie Sanders on Wednesday for being stuck in the past.
Speaking at a fundraiser in Chicago, Biden touted his focus on the middle class and decried Sanders's ambition for a socialist revolution, the Washington Times reports. Biden's comments came as Sanders gave a lengthy speech explaining his view of history and the necessity of democratic socialism, which Biden said is unnecessary and even counterproductive.
"It doesn't require socialism, and it doesn’t require some fundamental shift. It requires sort of reordering capitalism to make capitalism work and save it," Biden said.
Biden said the middle class needs to be rebuilt to give more "breathing room": The solution he said should be making capitalism work. He believes things have changed and need to be turned around to promote the middle class. He proposes this idea of turning things around, can work in his favor as he is the leading Democrat at this time.
"This is not about the past. It’s about the future and what are we going to do? What are we going to do? How do we move this country forward? And it’s all within our wheelhouse to do these things. There’s not a single thing we cannot do," Biden said.
Sanders believes the American people would be willing to pay more in taxes to live a life in socialism. "I suspect that a lot of people would be delighted to pay more in taxes," Sanders says referring to other socialistic countries.
Biden is not the only 2020 contender to reject socialism. Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper stated it is a disastrous way of governing. "Democratic socialism is not just a poor electoral strategy," Hickenlooper said. "I think it’s a disastrous governing model."