Doug Jones: Claims that many Democratic nominees are 'far left, socialist' is 'just a boogeyman'

Doug Jones wants everyone to relax. Nothing to see here, just a normal crop of Democratic nominees, and anyone calling them socialists is spinning a "boogeyman" for the base. Fine, except Jones is running in Alabama this cycle, which means he has every incentive in the world to make his party sound as moderate and unthreatening as possible. That's not analysis. That's a campaign talking point dressed up as a media hit.

The trouble for Jones is that the labels didn't come from Republican ad shops. They came from the candidates themselves. Democratic socialists have been winning contested primaries in New York, in city council races, in congressional districts that used to belong to machine Democrats, and they've done it while calling themselves democratic socialists, running on rent freezes, defunding proposals, and full-throated Medicare for All. Nobody had to invent that branding. It's on their own campaign literature.

Jones can call it "preaching to the choir" all he wants, but voters in swing states aren't in anyone's choir. They're the ones who watch a party primary and notice which candidates are winning and what those candidates actually believe. When the frontrunners in high-profile races embrace the label themselves, it's not a boogeyman to point that out. It's just reading the results.

If Jones thinks the socialist label is unfair, the fix is simple: Democrats could nominate people who don't describe themselves that way. Until then, don't blame Republicans for taking the party at its word.