From the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

Here's your host, Scott Bertram.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to another edition

of the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. On this episode, we'll talk with David Azarad from Hillsdale, NBC, about

the apparent rise and the support of socialism in America. David Harsani will tell us about his book

now in paperback. First, Freedom, arrived through America's enduring history with the gun.

With Emma now in theaters, Lorraine Murphy from Hillsdale's English department returns to talk about

that Jane Austen novel, and Kathleen O'Toole, Assistant Provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale

College, will tell us all about the Barney Charter School Initiative.

We're joined now by Dr. David Azarad. He's Assistant Professor of Government and Research Fellow

at Hillsdale in D.C. David, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me. So back in 2016, four years ago, you wrote a piece for the weekly standard, was a cover piece,

about how Bernie Sanders had made socialism reputable in America. How do you think that support

for socialism in America has evolved since then? I mean, what he's really done is legitimized the concept.

I mean, we've had a socialist party or socialist parties in America since 1876, even at the

height of the Cold War, from the polling I've seen there were about 20% of Americans who

supported socialism.

But it's now been a wild since the Cold War. Our universities don't teach history or economics all that

well. And so a whole generation has come about that has no first-hand knowledge of Marxist

socialism and communism. And Sanders comes along, and he criticizes capitalism,

which has come to be associated in the minds of many with 2008 in the financial crisis.

And then he holds up socialism as this wonderful alternative, or as he calls it Democratic socialism,

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