Piotrowski says he’s not a socialist, but said so in tweet to make point to Sanders supporters
James Piotrowski, the Democratic challenger to 1st District GOP Rep. Raul Labrador, said today that he’s not a socialist, but he described himself as one in a February tweet to make a point to supporters of then-presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist.
“I’ve been called a socialist more times than you could imag
ine because of the legal work I do,” Piotrowski said, including representing labor unions. “So when I tweeted that out to Sanders supporters, it was trying to identify that I’m one of those folks that have been in the trenches, I’ve been called a socialist, I’ve been called an activist, I’ve been called a lot worse.”
The tweet, in response to another sent by Sanders sharply criticizing rival Hillary Clinton as too moderate, said, “@BernieSanders this tweet cost you the vote of this lifelong progressive, labor activist and socialist. This was beneath you.”
Piotrowski sent the tweet from a personal Twitter account he set up in 2009. “It was there mainly to keep me in touch with my children,” he said, but also to occasionally vent about issues or post miscellaneous thoughts, including his progress on restoring an old Airstream trailer. Other posts included one saying he wanted a milkshake.
“I used that word in that tweet the same way it’s been thrown at me,” Piotrowski said. “To me, that’s a word with a pretty specific meaning. To actually be a socialist would involve an economic theory that I don’t espouse, an economic theory of state ownership of industry. … When I was using the word in that tweet, I was using it in the same way that people today call Hillary Clinton a socialist, call Barack Obama a socialist. It’s a shorthand for, ‘You’re farther left than I am, you’re doing things to fight corporate power, you believe in doing things to regulate markets.’ I was using it in that sense, that I get called a socialist, like all the Democratic candidates at that point.”
He said, “What I do believe is that we unleash the power of markets to create tremendous economic growth, but we’ve still got to have a legal system that rides herd on that. My economic beliefs are right in the middle of the road. I’ve got a degree in economics.” Piotrowski said he supports a “mixed economy,” of “free markets with appropriate government regulation,” adding, “The only remaining fight in the field of economics these days is not between socialists and capitalists. It’s what’s the correct level of government intervention, not whether there should be any.”
Piotrowski said he deleted the tweet last night, “when I realized that it was going to become fodder in the campaign.”
He also made the account private. He said he did so out of concern that it could be used to lead to his teenage daughter’s Twitter account. “I’m not very good at this social media thing,” Piotrowski said. “Nobody wants to be judged on the basis of one tweet.”
He stopped short of calling the tweet a mistake. “It was a loose use of language, absolutely. It was born of frustration at how broken our politics have become, and was something I wrote at the spur of the moment in an effort to try and bring some calmness to the debate,” Piotrowski said. “I probably failed, but that was my attempt.”
The line in the profile of the Twitter account, which said, “Noone's ever had to ask which side I am on,” is something Piotrowski said comes from “an old saying among folks in the labor movement.” He said, “Which side are you on was kind of a code phrase for: Are you with the workers, or are you with the boss?” He said, “I’ve always stood with working people, literally my whole life.”
