The "Not a True Socialist" argument is not a true Socialist argument

Interesting anti-Bernie article below by Cindy Shehan.

I too am disgusted that Bernie demonizes Maduro and has not denounced US sanctions and other actions in Venezuela.  I agree with Shehan there and in a few other areas.

Still, Bernie is far better across the anti-War spectrum than any other currently viable candidate.  He denounces the US coup in Boliva (Biden does not) and Yemen and proposes to end Forever Wars and drastically cut defense defense spending.

For a long time, I had been confusing Shehan with the pro-Bernie anti-war Medea Benjamin (co-founder of CODEPINK) and I was confusing her with Shehan.

I like and trust Benjamin more, along with fellow Bernie supporters Ariel Gold (of JVP) and endless other "true Socialists" and "true Communists" you could name, even if Bernie is himself less radical than they, because they are political organizers and not ideologues.

Shehan does enunciate Socialist principles in ideology, if not political practice.  

In practice she had a platform similar to Sanders but garnered a tiny percentage of the vote.  It would be cruel to add she ran on ticket with Rosanne Barr and has long associated with the libertarian "Peace and Freedom" party in California, which has no national significance.  The actual Socialist Party disqualified her.

Socialist parties have been anything but the nominal Socialism Shehan describes either, so don't get me into defending them.

I'm an active member of DSA, which is "not a Socialist" organization either (it's Democratic Socialist, a kind of anti-non-oxymoron, members often ruely observe) though many Socialists do participate in DSA as it's been the largest Socialist organization for decades now in the USA.  Virtually all people in DSA support Bernie--who is also a DSA member.

So the "Not a True Socialist" argument against Bernie is neither a one true Socialists nor Communists would advance, only Socialist Idealogues who are not actuallly part of socialist organizations.

I suppose, to be a Socialist Idealogue is understandable.  Some are, just not so much in actual Socialist Parties or other organizations.  I suppose there is no rule that accurately self-described socialists can't be Socialist Ideologues as I define them, though it's rarely found except in leading characters such as Shehan, and cranks.

But no Communist is a Communist Ideologue except part time, to be a Communist is to be committed to action, action which is initially directed to achieve pracitical reforms in the here and now, as aptly described in none other than the Communist Manifesto.  Communists support the party that is at the leading edge of reform in the here and now, not in some imaginary future.

Likewise, with the "Not a True Anti-War President", though sadly that claim is stronger.