I know some folks are saying how badly the far left wing of the Democratic Party did in this month’s primaries, but you can’t win them all—and it surely doesn’t mean that the progressive wing of the party is going away. It could mean that the economically ruinous agenda of single-payer health care and free college aren’t winning issues beyond the concrete power bastions of the Democratic Party. Moreover, culturally, the push to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and make abortion a tax-subsidized enterprise (their penchant for it is also off-putting) might prove to be difficult with normal voters as well.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rising lefty from Queens, are the point of the lance in this far left crusade. They may have hit the midwestern wall this month, but Gallup last week noted that for the first time, more Democrats view socialism more favorably that capitalism. There’s your proof that the far left is slowly becoming the base of the party, which we saw snippets of in the 2016 primaries (via Gallup):
For the first time in Gallup's measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year -- lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.
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Views of socialism among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly important in the current political environment because many observers have claimed the Democratic Party is turning in more of a socialist direction.
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Americans aged 18 to 29 are as positive about socialism (51%) as they are about capitalism (45%). This represents a 12-point decline in young adults' positive views of capitalism in just the past two years and a marked shift since 2010, when 68% viewed it positively. Meanwhile, young people's views of socialism have fluctuated somewhat from year to year, but the 51% with a positive view today is the same as in 2010.
Older Americans have been consistently more positive about capitalism than socialism. For those 50 and older, twice as many currently have a positive view of capitalism as of socialism.
Well, on the latter note, as we’ve said before, all young Americans need to do is get employed and start paying taxes. Then, you’ll see how those figures change. And by change, I mean, support for socialism and income redistribution drops like a rock. For now, it would be wise for Republicans and anti-socialists to highlight the price tag for the Sanders-Ocasio-Cortez agenda: $42.5 trillion over the next decade to pay for their left wing goodie bag, $218 trillion over the next 30 years.
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