A politician can call a tour "Fighting Oligarchy" and still need to get from Bakersfield to Sacramento. But there's something almost too perfect about watching America's loudest self-described socialist step off a luxury private jet between rallies about how the rich are ruining everything.

And to be clear, my problem isn't that Sen. Bernie Sanders flies private. I'd love nothing more than to jet around without going through TSA with the unwashed masses, too. My problem is that he's built a political brand around condemning the system that made him prosperous, then turns around and pushes policies that make that system harder for everyone else to use.

New campaign finance reports show Sanders' campaign spent more than $550,000 on private jet travel in 2025 as he crisscrossed the country with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour.

It's a bit like watching King Charles go to a "No Kings" rally about Donald Trump.

A big chunk of that spending went to Ventura Air Services, which operates the Bombardier Challenger jet Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were seen using, with costs advertised as high as $15,000 an hour. The filings also show additional payments to other private jet providers.

When asked about the criticism, Sanders didn't duck it. He defended the choice as the only practical way to do multiple rallies a week and told critics to picture him "sitting on a waiting line at United… No apologies for that."

Fine. Campaigns move fast. Schedules collide. Airports delay. The world doesn't stop because a senator wants to make a point. So I get the impulse.

But that's not what's happening here. The jet is just the prop that makes the real contradiction impossible to ignore.

Sanders is wealthy. He owns multiple homes. He's earned millions over time, including through book sales fueled by the attention his political career created. None of that bothers me.

America is supposed to be a place where you can climb. If you write a book people want to buy, you should get paid. If you build a brand people support, you should profit from it. I profit from you reading this column; I'm thankful you're here.

The trouble starts when the same person who benefits from markets spends the rest of his time attacking the market as immoral. Sanders doesn't just complain about cronyism or insider favors. He sells the idea that wealth itself is suspect, that profit is exploitation, and that the solution is more government control over what people earn, keep, and build.

That message has consequences. When you treat success like a social sin, you don't end up with a freer society. You end up with bigger bureaucracies, more political discretion, and more carve-outs for the connected.

And that's the part socialists never seem to advertise: central planning doesn't eliminate elites. It just changes who the elites are. Instead of entrepreneurs competing for customers, you get administrators, regulators, and politicians deciding who gets exceptions.

This is the central idea animating George Orwell's classic "Animal Farm." The pigs who took over end up no different than the farmers they overthrew. Bernie is what he claims to hate.

So yes, the private jet matters, because it's a perfect snapshot of the instinct. Rules for thee, logistical necessities for me.

In a constitutional republic, legitimacy depends on equal rules and limited power, not on officials "meaning well." When politicians argue for more control over your paycheck, your business, and your choices, they're asking for more coercion—and hypocrisy corrodes the civic trust that makes self-government work.

If Sanders wants to live like a successful American, he should. But he can't keep telling everyone else that ambition is a vice, then cash the checks ambition made possible.

This is where Sanders' favorite European comparisons come in. He points to Nordic-style systems as proof that "democratic socialism" works. But those countries are not socialist utopias. They're market economies with large welfare states, and many have had the luxury of underinvesting in defense within a U.S.-anchored security architecture.

NATO's own figures show the United States accounts for roughly 60% of total NATO defense spending in the 2025 estimates, and the U.S. spends more than all European allies and Canada combined. It's easier to fund a generous welfare model when someone else carries more of the hard costs of deterrence.

Everyone in Europe claims to be afraid of Russia. The United States is the one putting the grunt work behind everything with the Ukrainians, while the Europeans buy Russian oil and complain about American power.

They're like adults still swiping Dad's credit card. It doesn't mean their societies are fake. It means their moral lectures about "how to do capitalism" come with an asterisk. As does any outrage they claim to have.

Now, the best defense of Sanders is straightforward: he's not against people having money; he's against unfairness. And a private jet isn't a personal indulgence if it's how you reach big crowds and keep a tight schedule.

But that defense collapses the moment he turns the logistical excuse into a moral sermon aimed at everyone else. He wants a country where ordinary people face more limits, more taxes, and more government permission slips, while he insists his own exceptions are simply necessary.

A free society can handle a socialist senator getting rich. What it can't afford is leaders who get rich in America and then sell voters on tearing down the ladder that made it possible.

Fly whatever you want, Senator. Just don't land your policies on the rest of us.