Bernie Sanders isn’t the only high-pro­file, out­spo­ken, Brook­lyn-born, Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go grad­u­ate to be ques­tioned on cable news about whether he iden­ti­fies as a socialist.

In this 1989 clip from CNN, cel­e­brat­ed astro­physi­cist and Amer­i­can icon Carl Sagan was also asked, by Ted Turn­er, whether he was a social­ist. And his response is strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar to that giv­en today by Sanders.

Sagan, who was polit­i­cal­ly active through­out the 1980s as an oppo­nent of the nuclear arms race and Ronald Regan’s Strate­gic Defense Ini­tia­tive, argues that the Unit­ed States is unique from oth­er wealthy coun­tries in its unwill­ing­ness to care for, and invest in, its own cit­i­zens. ​“The Unit­ed States is per­fect­ly able to do that,” he says. ​“It choos­es not to.”

It’s a point Bernie Sanders espous­es fre­quent­ly when mak­ing TV appear­ances, cit­ing Swe­den and Den­mark as exam­ples of coun­tries that suc­cess­ful­ly pri­or­i­tize issues like health care, paid fam­i­ly leave and pub­lic education.

Unlike Sanders, Sagan did not nec­es­sar­i­ly agree to be labeled a social­ist. He did, how­ev­er, point out star­tling real­i­ties, like the Unit­ed States’ rank­ing in infant-mor­tal­i­ty rate (19th in 1989), to reveal the unbal­anced pri­or­i­ties of a gov­ern­ment that was spend­ing vast amounts of mon­ey in a Cold War with the Sovi­et Union.

In Sagan’s own words:

“Eigh­teen oth­er coun­tries save the lives of their babies bet­ter than we do. How come? They just spend more mon­ey on it. They care about their babies more than we care about ours. I think it’s a disgrace…This coun­try has great wealth…We are using mon­ey for the wrong stuff.”

Sanders echoes this sen­ti­ment when he argues for invest­ing in poli­cies like free tuition at pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties, uni­ver­sal health-care and decreas­ing the defense budget.

Back in 1989, Turn­er, who awk­ward­ly rubbed his hands togeth­er dur­ing Sagan’s response, didn’t skip a beat in rerout­ing the con­ver­sa­tion towards a top­ic the pub­lic was per­haps more com­fort­able hear­ing about from Sagan: time-travel.

At least today in 2016, Sanders is asked actu­al fol­low-up ques­tions by our talk-show hosts and polit­i­cal pun­dits — allow­ing for real debate and help­ing to give the term ​‘social­ism’ its fair due in the pub­lic arena.