“Bernie himself says he’s a socialist.”
He isn’t really much of a socialist; the only thing he wants to nationalize is health insurance. Maybe electric power, too, as when he was Mayor of Burlington, VT the city owned the electric utility. But that city had owned it since decades before he was born. It should be noted that nine Republicans have served as Mayors of Burlington since the electric utility was socialized and none of them returned it to private ownership. It is a dirty little secret that Republicans at times have supported socialist policies, too.