The 12 best reasons to be a democratic socialist

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Bernie's speech resonated with millions and now the media is having a love affair with it.
Salon has the breakdown via Aletrnet.

The 12 best reasons to be a democratic socialist--Bernie's latest speech was a triumph -- and a reminder that our greatest social programs are rooted in socialism
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/21/bernie_sanders_12_best_reasons_for_being_a_democratic_socialist_partner/

1. Major political and economic reforms. “Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system which is corrupt, that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism, to my mind, speaks to a system, which for example during the 1990s—and I want you to hear this—allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion, over a 10-year period, in lobbying and campaign contributions in order to get deregulated. They wanted the government off of their backs. They wanted to do whatever they wanted to do….

“Then, 10 years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior led to their collapse, what our system enabled them to get bailed out by the United States government, which through Congress and the Fed, provided trillions of dollars in aid to Wall Street. In other words, Wall Street used their wealth and power to get Congress to do their bidding for deregulation, and then when Wall Street collapsed, they used their wealth and power to get bailed out. Quite a system!

“And then, to add insult to injury, we were told that not only were the banks too big to fail, we were told that the bankers were too big to jail. And this is the system. Young people who get caught possessing marijuana, they get police records—and many many hundreds of thousands have police records that have impacted their lives in serious ways. On the other hand, Wall Street CEOs who help destroy the economy, they don’t get police records, they get raises in their salaries. And this is what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he talked about socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for everyone else.”

2. An end to corporate welfare. “It is time that we had democratic socialism for working families, not just for Wall Street billionaires. It means that we should not be providing welfare for corporations. It means that we should not be providing huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country or trade policies, which boost corporate profits while they result in workers losing their jobs. It means that we create a government which works for all of the American people, not just powerful special interests. It means that economic rights must be an essential part of what America stands for.”

3. A national public healthcare system. “It means that health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege… I know that there are some people out there who think this is just an incredibly radical idea—imagine, in the United States of America, all of us, having health care as a right. But I hope all of you know this is not a radical idea. It is a conservative idea. It is an idea and a practice that exists in every other major country on earth.

“Not just in Scandanavia—in Denmark, in Sweden, in Finland or Norway. It exists in Canada—I live 50 miles away from Canada; not a radical idea. It exists in France, Germany, Taiwan. All over the world, countries have made the determination that all of their people are entitled to health care, and I believe the time is long overdue for the United States to join the rest of the world… And by the way, what a Medicare-for-all system will bring about is ending the absurdity of the American people paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.”

4. Tuition-free public colleges and universities. “Now, when I talk about democratic socialism, what that means to me, is that in the year 2015, a college degree today is equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years ago. And what that means is that public education must today allow every person in this country, who has the ability, the qualifications and the desire, the right to go to a public college or university tuition-free. Is this a radical socialistic idea? I don’t think so. It exists today in many countries all over the world. You know what, it used to exist in the United States of America. Great universities, like the University of California, the City University of New York, were virtually tuition-free.”

#5-#12 can be found here http://www.salon.com/2015/11/21/bernie_sanders_12_best_reasons_for_being_a_democratic_socialist_partner/

[LWolf]

1. More

5. A government that creates jobs, not prisoners. “Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy. It makes far more sense to me to put millions of people back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, than to have a real unemployment rate of almost 10 percent. It is far smarter to invest in jobs and educational opportunities for young people who are unemployed, than to lock them up and invest in jails and incarceration.”

Putting people in prison is an industry. There's profit to be made. There are better models out there. The U.S. doesn't care about restorative justice, or nurturing a healthy society. Restorative justice is certainly not new, and it's successful in some places in the world. Denmark, for instance. Yes, another Scandinavian program that is better for people than the U.S. "unique" alternative.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12

6. A living minimum wage and real family leave. “Democratic socialism means that if someone works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty; that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage—$15 bucks an hour over the next several years. It means that we join the rest of the world and pass the very strong Paid Family and Medical Leave legislation now sitting in Congress.

A country that really valued a "work ethic" would make sure that working provided economic security.

7. Stopping climate change-causing industries. “Democratic socialism to me means that we have government policy, strong government policy, which does not allow the greed and profiteering of the fossil fuel industry to destroy our environment and our planet. And it means to me that we have a moral responsibility to combat climate change and leave this planet healthy and inhabitable for our kids and grandchildren.”

Yes. And, as he has pointed out in other places, if we don't move now, we're setting up a scenario that feeds massive migration and world-wide competition for resources...sources of global conflict that will hasten our destruction.

9. America’s political system must be a democracy. “Democratic socialism, to me, does not just mean that we must create a nation of economic and social justice and environmental sanity. Of course, it does mean that. But it also means that we must create a vibrant democracy based on the principle of one person, one vote. It is extremely sad—and I hope all of you will pay a lot of attention to this issue—it is extremely sad that the United States, one of the oldest, most stable democracies in the world, has one of the lowest voter turnouts of any major country, and that millions of young people and working-class people have given up on the political process entirely.

“In the last midterm election, just a year ago, 63 percent of the American people didn’t vote, 80 percent of young people did not vote. Clearly, despite the efforts of many Republican governors, who want to suppress the vote, to make it harder for people of color and old people to participate in the political system, our job together is to make it easier for people to vote, not harder to vote. It is not a radical idea—and I will fight for this as hard as I can as president—to say that everyone in this country who is 18 years of age or older is registered to vote: end of discussion.”

This is how a minority control the majority, when the majority has no hope, and no engagement. It's why we should welcome candidates who bring fresh energy, enthusiasm, and engagement to our elections and to the process of governing.