The presidential race has surfaced divisions among Democrats over progressive ideas such as a wealth tax, a Green New Deal and Medicare-for-all. The often-intense debates about these policies aren't just important because they could reshape the U.S. economy. They also reflect a larger, more fundamental disagreement about capitalism itself.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) believe that the American system of extractive capitalism is fundamentally broken — Sanders to the point of identifying as a democratic socialist — and see its failure as one of the forces that carried President Trump to the White House. Former vice president Joe Biden voices an opposing view: At an October fundraiser in Silicon Valley, he characterized Trump not as a product of American capitalism but rather a threat to it. “You don't need some radical, radical socialist kind of answer to any of this — you've just got to make capitalism work like it's supposed to work,” he said. “We've got to save capitalism from this guy.”
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