Bernie Sanders released a video on Monday explaining why voters shouldn’t be afraid of the term socialism, and should embrace it as the best system for American politics.
“Democratic socialism is a government that reflects the interests of ordinary people, rather than is currently the case, the billionaire class,” Sanders said in the Q&A video produced by NowThis.
Sanders, who is currently trailing democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by less than 10 points in Iowa, has picked up momentum over the summer by billing himself as a liberal progressive. Although he used to call himself a socialist when he was in the Senate, but has since dropped that title since hopping on the campaign trail. The former governor of Vermont supports universal healthcare, free higher education and higher taxes.
In the short video, Sanders explains that socialism is a good system by extolling the virtues of European socialism, especially in Scandinavia, where healthcare is a right of all people and college education is largely free. These socialist countries all have higher taxes, but are able to provide workers with significant benefits, such as vacation days and childcare. Additionally, he says that in most of those countries voter turnout is much higher than in the United States.
“[W]hat democratic socialism is about is creating a government and policies that work for ordinary people rather [than] where our political system is dominated by large campaign donors who are working for the very wealth,” he said.
