Denials like, “I am not a socialist” always sound more like admissions of guilt. 

“I am not a socialist.” “I did not have relations with that woman.” “I am not out to destroy your health care.”

But as Kamala Harris, once touted as the future of the party, enters the twilight days of her campaign, she’s scrambling for a message. Any message. Even a really stupid one.

While campaigning in Iowa, White House hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) outlined what she views as problems in our economic system but also noted that she was “not a socialist.” 

“I’m not trying to upend and blow up systems. I’m not trying to start a revolution. I am not a socialist,” she continued but added that “capitalism assumes that everyone is starting out on the same base and then people will compete and the best will rise. The majority of people aren’t starting out on the same base, and we’ve got to lift people up and in particular working people.”

That’s not what capitalism assumes. It assumes that the government trying to artificially put everyone on the same base will be a bigger disaster.

But is Kamala Harris a non-socialist moderate? Her campaign collapse dovetailed with her embrace of Senator Bernie Sanders’ plan to nationalize health care. Sanders is a socialist. Kamala embraced his socialist plan.

Now she may not identify as a socialist, but it’s hard to argue that you can embrace a socialist plan to nationalize health care and insist that you aren’t tainted by socialism.