Touting 'Democratic Socialism,' Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders Asks: 'What's Wrong With' America Becoming More Like Scandinavia?

Fresh into his bid for the White House in 2016, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Sunday championed democratic socialism and seemed to imply America could use more of it in the form of "real political shake-up."

Image source: ABC News

When "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos asked the 73-year-old how he expects to be elected president while holding such views, Sanders pointed to Scandinavia.

"Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is," he said. "And if we know that in countries in Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden — they are very democratic countries, obviously. The voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people. And in those countries, college education, graduate school is free."

Stephanopoulos said Republicans were likely to criticize Sanders for imagining the U.S. as more like Scandinavia, but he didn't back down.

"That's right. And what's wrong with that?" Sanders told the host. "What's wrong when you have more income and wealth equality? What's wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, higher minimum wage than we do, and they are stronger on the environment than we do?"

He added that "we can learn from other countries."

The relevant portion begins around the 1:40 mark:

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

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