Cuban-Americans living in Florida who have fled Fidel Castro’s dictatorship now worry Bernie Sanders, who hails Marxist policies like those imposed by the late Cuban leader, could become the next US President in the race against Donald Trump. US Senator Marco Rubio warned the Vermont Senator has been hiding behind the “socialist” label for decades, whilst propagating authoritarian Marxist ideas.
He told Fox News: “He’s gotten away with it for years saying that he is a socialist. But he’s actually not a socialist, he’s a Marxist.
“This is Marxism and Marxism is based on the belief that no person has any value as an individual.
“Your value is that of a member of a class.
“Secondly, Marxism is based on the belief that an employer and an employee can help each other and both be better off.
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“The worker makes good pay, the employer makes a profit on the capital they’ve invested.
“But his ideas are Marxist ideas and Marxism always leads to authoritarianism and dictatorship eventually.”
He added: “In my home state of Florida we have hundreds of thousands of people who have come to this country fleeing some of the very same policies that we’re now seeing advocated on a debate stage in one of our two major political parties.
“And Bernie Sanders is the likely Democratic nominee and he’s a Marxist.”
Mr Sanders’ policies bear crucial similarities with those of Labour Party outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, with Mr Sanders making healthcare the central theme of his campaign and also calling for a ‘Green New Deal’ to fight the climate crisis, just as Mr Corbyn did.
Rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination rounded on front-runner Bernie Sanders in the latest televised debate of the campaign.
The Vermont senator was the focus of much discussion in Charleston, South Carolina, less than a week before so-called Super Tuesday where 14 states hold primaries and caucuses.
But billionaire Michael Bloomberg also came in for criticism about the treatment of women in the workplace, while other hopefuls sought to make themselves the alternative to Mr Sanders.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is seeking a strong win in South Carolina to keep his campaign afloat, argued only he has the experience to lead in the world, while Amy Klobuchar repeatedly contended that she alone could win the votes of battleground state moderates.
Pete Buttigieg pointed to Mr Sanders’s self-described democratic socialism and his recent comments expressing admiration for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s push for education.
He said: “I am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s.”
But the moderates did little to draw separation among themselves, a dynamic that has so far only benefited the Vermont senator.