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/