Asked tonight if he actually expects the American people to elect an avowed socialist as president, Bernie Sanders said yes, and cited Denmark as an example of how “democratic socialism” works. Here’s that exchange:
COOPER: Senator Sanders, a Gallup poll says half the country would not put a socialist in the White House. How can any socialist win a general election in the you united states?
SANDERS: We’re going to win because we’ll explain what it is. What democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent own 90 percent, almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. That it is wrong today in a rigged economy that 57 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States. You see every other major country saying to moms that when you have a baby, we’re not going to separate you from your newborn baby because we are going to have — we are going to have medical and family paid leave like every other country on earth. Those are some of the principles that I believe in, and I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.
COOPER: Denmark is a country that has a population of 5.6 million people. The question is really about electability here. That’s what I’m trying to get at. The Republican attack ad against you in a general election writes itself. You supported the — you honeymooned in the Soviet Union and you said you’re capitalist.
SANDERS: Let’s look at the facts. The facts that are very simple. Republicans win when there is a low voter turnout. That is what happened last November. Sixty-three percent of the American people didn’t vote, Anderson. Eighty percent of young people didn’t vote. We are bringing out huge turnouts in creating excitement all over this country. Democrats, if a White House on down will win when there is excitement and a large voter turnout and that is what this campaign is doing.
COOPER: You don’t consider yourself a capitalist though?
SANDERS: Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little by which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t. I believe in a society where all people do well, not just a handful of billionaires.