In a CNN town hall on Monday, presidential contender Bernie Sanders defended brutal Communist regimes by declaring it “a good thing” that Fidel Castro brought literacy to the Cuban people and that China’s government has “taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history.”
“[W]hen Fidel Castro first came to power… he initiated a major literacy program,” Sanders said. “There [were] a lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate, and he formed a literacy brigade…they went out and they helped people learn to read and write. You know what? I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing.”
He went on to claim that he has been extremely “critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world,” but “you can’t say — China is another example. China is an authoritarian country, becoming more and more authoritarian. But can anyone deny — I mean, the facts are clear, that they have taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history.”
This is your brain on “democratic socialism.”