Vermont U.S. Sen. [crscore]Bernie Sanders[/crscore] got a boost among progressives Friday when political comedian Bill Maher endorsed him during an interview on his HBO show Friday.
“I want to help your campaign. I want to see you get the nomination,” Maher, an outspoken liberal, told Sanders. One way to do that, Maher asserted, was to explain to the American public that many of the programs they support are socialist programs.
Sanders, an independent, calls himself a democratic socialist. During Tuesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, he railed against the “casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little.”
“This is my big thing tonight, to get you to undemonize this word,” Maher told Sanders, referring to “socialism.”
“Socialism is the programs [Republicans] already like. They like Social Security. That’s socialism. They like Medicare. They like the VA. They like the military. It’s already a socialist country,” Maher said.
“No, it’s not a socialist country,” Sanders responded.
“It’s quasi-,” said Maher.
“Quasi-,” Sanders agreed. “There are some socialist programs.”
Sanders repeated his calls for raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help pay for a single-payer health care system health care, and tuition-free public colleges and universities.
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