A new Gallup poll shows that far more Democrats have a positive view of socialism than of capitalism.
This is bad news for the country as a whole as the Democratic Party continues to shift into a full-fledged socialist party.
The Gallup poll conducted telephone interviews from July 30, 2018, to Aug. 5, 2018, with a random sample of 1,505 adults, age 18 and older, across the United States.
Overall, the poll found that just 37% of Americans say they have a positive view of socialism, with 58% holding a negative view. On the other hand, 56% have a positive view of capitalism, and 40% negative. But among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 57% say they have a positive view of socialism, while 47% have a positive view of capitalism.
The Gallup survey did not name specific socialist political figures nor did it define “socialism” or “capitalism” but rather asked respondents whether their opinion of each is positive or negative.
There has been little change in Americans’ attitudes toward socialism at the national level. Americans’ positive views of socialism have shifted only between 35 percent and 39 percent, with this year’s result of 37 percent marking the average trend.
The results do, however, reveal a remarkable age gap in perception of the two systems. Just 45 percent of young Americans ages 18 to 29 view capitalism positively. Back in 2010, 68 percent of the voters in that group viewed it positively.
Americans who are 30 and older, though, have been consistently more positive about capitalism than socialism, the poll shows.
Americans continue to give high marks to small business, entrepreneurs and free enterprise, although positive attitudes toward these have declined since 2016, according to Gallup. Big business, with 50 percent favorability, garnered a lower rating than small business, free enterprise, entrepreneurs and capitalism. But big business still outperformed the federal government. Thirty-nine percent of voters said they had a positive view of the federal government — just two points higher than socialism.
The recent Gallup poll exposes that Democrats are becoming more out of touch with mainstream America and the far-left socialist wing is beginning to take over the party.
The results of the poll is even more puzzling and downright shocking when considering the current state of “socialist paradise” Venezuela which is currently collapsing. At the same time, other alleged socialist success stories like Sweden, Norway and Denmark have been moving steadily toward free enterprise after watching their socialist experiments fail.
What’s more, Sweden and Denmark rank as more economically free than the U.S., according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. Norway is just a few steps behind. At the bottom of the economic freedom list are socialist horrors such as Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.
Many have blamed our nation’s educational system for the rise of socialism as same are largely dominated by left leaning individuals. This would explain why almost half of those aged 18 to 29 view socialism has a positive force. They have not been taught that free-market capitalism has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of mankind while socialism has a perfect record when it comes to producing nothing but poverty and misery.
Studies have shown that support for this failed system usually drops as people age once they get a taste of real-world experience. Still, the Democrats which once touted themselves as the party of facts and Bill Clinton who once championed “New Democrat” ideas which focused on growing the economy and becoming less dependent on government benefits have now shifted to the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party and with the Democrats favored to take over the House after midterm elections, having a slew of far left socialists in power could be disastrous for the country.
Yet, despite the rise of socialism in recent years, several socialist candidates have failed to capture their party’s nomination in recent primary elections.
While a majority of Democrats nationwide react positively to the word “socialism,” strong antipathy toward socialism among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents suggest that a socialist political agenda might not bode well in swing districts this fall.