Sanders: Americans Are More Ready to Elect a Democratic Socialist than They Were in 2016

EXCERPT:

BASH: "You’ve announced a big speech coming up this coming week about Democratic socialism. You gave a similar speech back in 2015. Do you think now the country is more ready for a Democratic socialist president like you than it was four years ago?"
SANDERS: "I think the answer is yes, but I think it’s important for the American people to understand what my definition is of Democratic socialism. It’s certainly not how Donald Trump defines it. I have spent my whole life fighting for democracy, fighting against authoritarianism, whether it was in the Soviet Union, Venezuela or anyplace else. But what I believe when we talk about Democratic socialism is, number one, we have to deal with the massive levels of income and wealth inequality in this country. By the way, Dana, this is not something we see on TV too often but we do have to deal with it as a nation. Is it acceptable that three families in America now own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people? Is it acceptable that the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent or that 49 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent? If we are a real democracy, is it appropriate that you have a handful of billionaires who can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to elect U.S. senators, members of the Congress, governors, even presidents?”