Democratic candidate for president and proud socialist Bernie Sanders thinks America should elect him to the White House so he can make the United States look less American and more like Scandinavia.
During an interview on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, the Independent senator from Vermont insisted that there needs to be a “real political shakeup in this country” in order to get the government to start working for regular Americans.
“If we know that in countries in Scandinavia like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries, obviously,” explained Sanders to host George Stephanopoulos.. “Their voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, healthcare is a right of all people. In those countries, college education, graduate school is free.”
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“In those countries, retirement benefits, childcare are stronger than in the United States of America,” the Vermont lawmaker continued. “And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people in the middle class rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class.”
Though Scandinavian countries perform well in those familiar surveys measuring global “happiness,” its citizens are nevertheless saddled with high taxes, entertained by dull television programs, and distinguished by very little cultural, ethnic and economic diversity.
“I can hear the Republican attack ad right now,” Stephanopoulos told Sanders. “‘He wants America to look more like Scandinavia.'”
However, Sanders insisted that there’s nothing “wrong” with the United States modeling itself after other countries with policies geared toward helping the middle class.
“We do a lot in our country which is good, but we can learn from other countries,” said Sanders.
The Vermont senator officially announced his campaign for president last week, revealing that he will run against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
