When I talk about democratic socialism, I'm not looking at Venezuela.

I'm not looking at Cuba.

I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden.

From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains.

Thank you. I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains. Is it really possible for someone who calls himself a socialist to be elected president of the United States?

Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is, and if we know that in countries in

Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries. Obviously,

the voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health

care is a right of all people. In those countries, college education, graduate school is

free. In those countries, retirement benefits, child care are stronger than in the

United States of America. And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary

people in the middle class rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the

billionaire. I can hear the Republican attack ad right now. He wants America to look more like

Scandinavia. That's right. That's right. And what's wrong with that?

You know, when I think of ideas of socialism, I go, okay, there's maybe Venezuela and there's Cuba, and then I go, but then there's also Norway and Denmark.

Right.

Do you think there's a branding disconnect in America between some of these policy ideas, between generations maybe?

We have never really known or grown up in a time of true economic prosperity in the United States.

We came of age in a time of hyper-concentration of wealth with the very tippy top of people

in the country and the world.

And so for us to have access, we also grew up seeing our peers in other countries, like in the

UK and Canada with single-payer healthcare systems.

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