Student whose family fled Soviet Russia confronts Bernie:
by
How does your plan beat ‘failures of socialism in nearly every country that has tried it?’
Sen. Bernie Sanders was confronted by a student about how he champions democratic socialism in the face of the “failures of socialism” worldwide.
At a CNN town hall in Manchester, N.H. Monday, Harvard student Samantha Frenkel-Popell asked the 2020 presidential candidate to “rectify” his support of democratic socialism, explaining that her father’s family fled Soviet Russia decades ago.
“My father’s family left Soviet Russia in 1979 fleeing from some of the very same socialist policies that you seem eager to implement in this country,” the college sophomore said. “How do you rectify your notion of democratic socialism with the failures of socialism in nearly every country that has tried it?”
“Thank you for asking that question,” Sanders said after applause. “Is it your assumption that I supported or believe in authoritarian communism that existed in the Soviet Union? I don’t. I never have, and I opposed it. I believe in a vigorous democracy.”
“You asked me about democratic socialism. Fair question and let me answer,” the Vermont senator continued, saying he believes there is “something fundamentally wrong” when “we have three families owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society, 160 million people.”
“Something wrong when the top one percent owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. Something very wrong when 49 percent of all new income today is going to the top one percent,” he added. “And something is equally wrong when we have a corrupt political system made worse by this disastrous citizen’s united Supreme Court decision that allows billionaires to spend unlimited sums of money to elect candidates that represent the wealthy.”
Sanders touted his support for universal health care and free tuition in public colleges and universities, while reiterating that his support of democratic socialism is “certainly not the authoritarian communism that existed in the Soviet Union.”