Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet ranks among Washington’s more politically doctrinaire politicians on the left. He is too smart to look and act radical, so he buys ads that portray him as an everyman who hikes and fishes in Colorado – albeit with a one-day fishing license to facilitate the ad production.

Despite the moderate façade, Bennet supports federal funding of the racially divisive teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools. Though his state leads the country in the worst categories of crime, Bennet wants to hold law enforcement officers personally liable when life-and-death confrontations go wrong.

As drug abuse and overdoses ravage the state he represents, Bennet boasts of sponsoring the most “far-reaching” marijuana legalization bill proposed in congressional history. He calls efforts to complete the border wall “medieval,” as fentanyl enters our country in quantities that make it the largest killer of people ages 18-45.

Bennet opposed a bill to ensure life-saving health care for children unwanted by adults who are born alive in medical facilities. The Gazette’s editorial board recently detailed how Bennet’s voting record puts him to the left of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

We should have used a better example. As it turns out, the moderate Sen. Bennet is to the left of Bernie Sanders – Vermont’s self-proclaimed socialist known for praising communist dictators. Just ask Bennet. Here’s what he said at a recent drag-queen themed fundraiser.

“When I say I have a progressive track record, I mean it, I’m more progressive than Bernie Sanders,” Bennet said, at an event in which he stood arm-in-arm with famous drag queen Laura Menora. “In terms of our, you know, our tax code because of the profound income inequality in our country.”

Left-wing politicians demonize “income inequality” to virtue signal their concern for social justice. Sanders uses the term to openly promote “revolution.” They use it to create class envy that might turn our country’s poor against the rich who create jobs, fund charities and generate tax revenues.

Leninist class-envy tactics barely resonate because reasonable Americans know why wages differ among 5-star chefs and entry level fast-food line cooks. It fails because America’s poor live in relative comfort. A 2019 study by Just Facts determined the poorest 20% of Americans consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries. As stated by Just Facts, if the poorest Americans comprised a country it would rank among the richest.

Colorado should hear Sen. Bennet loud and clear. He is far left of center socially and fiscally, the latter of which doesn’t always fly in Colorado. He will proudly go as “progressive” as the far left drags him – even to the left of socialist Sanders.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board