See now this is shifting goalposts... Only 25 percent of respondents ranked "socialist" as a desirable trait for a candidate.
From a few days ago:
U.S. Voters Don't Want Socialist or Very Old President: Poll
Hey how about one who is BOTH!
(And by the way, for anyone who thinks Bernie is moving the overton window, that dropped to 25% from 27%)
Mention that and you'll be told Bernie is a democratic socialist not a socialist socialist, with the implication being that the former doesn't have to worry about that baggage.
Now we see that Bernie used to support seizing the means of production, even if he doesn't anymore
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1106251433895186433
So either he's changed, or he's lying about it.
Right now the Republicans are barely attacking Bernie, they want him to win because that's their best shot in the general election (out of the major candidates). But eventually this stuff will be everywhere. He didn't get that treatment in 2016 because he wasn't the nominee, he got to go out while still popular.
But whether he's changer or he's lying, it's not going to be hard to paint him as a socialist socialist in the general election, where 25% makes Trump's 40% look like Bush post-9/11.
So whether it's because he's changed or because he "would mostly function as a social democrat" or because "he'd be too busy dealing with other shit to be nationalizing stuff"... it would never happen. But hey at least the probability Trump gets another 4 years would skyrocket, so odds are he'd never get the chance to even try!