Sen. Bernie Sanders should be commended for appearing at Liberty University on Monday. What it shows is that Sanders – a self-described socialist running for the Democratic nomination for president – isn’t afraid of an exchange of views. He’s willing to defend his ideas.

That’s something we haven’t seen from the other major Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She avoids interviews, won’t answer unscripted questions and even hand-picks attendees at her events.

The rough-and-tumble world of ideas doesn’t work like that.

“In this crowded primary season, candidates are finding that they sometimes need to stray from the traditional campaign comfort zones – candidates have visited Puerto Rico and have dispatched staff members to Guam – to get their message out,” TheNew York Times reports. “In a similar vein, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont will take his populist, progressive message to Liberty University, the Christian school in Virginia founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and deliver a convocation address on Monday morning.”

Sanders issued a statement when he accepted the invitation last month: “It is very easy for a candidate to speak to people who hold the same views. It’s harder but important to reach out to others who look at the world differently.”

He’s absolutely right. But an exchange of ideas is exactly what’s lacking in today’s presidential scrums.

Now let’s be clear; Sanders’ ideas are awful. Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried. Its grandest experiment – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republicans – is in the proverbial dustbin of history. What’s left are failed states – North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela – that enforce socialism with bullets and show trials.

Some Sanders supporters will argue that Sanders actually advocates a less strident version, a democratic socialism. Fair enough (though he himself doesn’t use that term much).

Democratic socialism has been tried, also, in post-World War II Europe. This version had relatively free markets, but high levels of social spending (paid for with higher taxes). Government made lots of rules, but didn’t directly control the means of production.

But the various European nations adopted democratic socialism to greater and lesser degrees. And now, this half-a-century long experiment is showing clear results. The countries with more free economies, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, are vastly better off than the countries that adopted a more socialistic version of the model – Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

(Smaller countries such as Sweden are often held up as examples of socialism that works, but the “Nordic model” is failing under the weight of the refugee crisis and decades of recession. Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and others are now abandoning it.)

Yet here’s the thing – Sanders is willing to argue these points. He’s willing to go to – of all places – Liberty University, the place where Sen. Ted Cruz announced his candidacy last spring.

We need more such brave souls in the political arena. Sanders might come off as a little eccentric. But he’s willing to engage ideas and constituents who don’t already agree with him. That’s real political courage.