Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) says Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was brave to take his progressive message before conservative audiences.
“I gotta hand it to Senator Sanders for possessing the intestinal fortitude to go before a Christian conservative university and talk about socialist economic policies,” West wrote in his blog about Sanders’s visit to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
“Gotta hand it to ya, Bernie – you’ve got far more cajones than GOP elected officials,” he added of the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.
{mosads}“But there are those of us who recognize the snake oil you’re selling,” he added, arguing that Sanders’s self-described “socialist” positions put him on the wrong side of the economic debate.
“There’s no economic injustice in America,” West said. “And we certainly don’t need any socialists speaking of how they will solve the issue.
“Matter of fact, a socialist like Bernie Sanders couldn’t care less about individual liberty and economic empowerment,” West continued. “He would advance policies that create more economic enslavement by way of wealth redistribution.
“I pray students there in the audience are a tad bit more intellectually savvy than to fall for the poisonous honey spewed by Sanders,” the former Florida lawmaker added.
Sanders surprised political pundits by appearing at Liberty University’s overwhelmingly conservative campus on Monday morning.
The evangelical college was founded by Jerry Falwell, a major player in Christian conservative circles before his death in 2007.
Sanders didn’t tone down his call for income equality and criminal justice reform in his address.
“When we talk about morality and when we talk about justice, we have to, in my view, understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little,” he told listeners during Liberty University’s convocation address.
West said that Sanders’s appearance at Liberty University shows that conservatives are losing the culture wars.
“Sadly, there were some seven-eight million evangelical Christians who didn’t even come out to vote in 2012,” he said.
“As a result, the progressive socialist left is so emboldened they’ll come right to the largest Christian university in the world,” West added.
“Sometimes I just have to wonder if we really want to fight back against these folks?”