Half a century ago, such ideas as full employment, a strong labor movement, national health insurance, investments in early childhood, free higher education, ending poverty in the richest nation on earth, progressive taxation, large-scale public infrastructure outlay, effective consumer regulation, and full enforcement of civil rights were utterly mainstream. Guess what? They still are.

– Bob Kuttner

I know for Governor Jindal it is easy to try to frighten people—we throw out a word, ‘socialism,’ oh my goodness we’re all supposed to be shaking in our boots. But I think that if you look at some of the real success stories in many of these countries, there’s a lot that we can learn,” said [Sen.] Sanders, referencing the accomplishments of European social democracies. “Countries like Finland and Denmark and Sweden are much more homogeneous than we are, they are much smaller than we are, but there are lessons that we can learn. Why are we the only major nation on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people? Forget Scandinavia, I live a hundred miles away from Canada; all of their people have health care and they do it much more cost-effectively than we do. Why are we the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee paid family and medical leave, so when a working-class woman has a baby she’s not forced to be separated from her baby and forced to go back to work a week or two weeks later?”

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