Poll: Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of Americans

Meredith Jessup | February 05, 2010 11:35 AM

According to the latest poll from Gallup, more than one-third of Americans--36%--have a positive image of "socialism," compared to 58% who have a negative images.

Predictably, peoples' views vary by party and ideology: a clear majority of Democrats and self-identified liberals say they have positive views of socialism, compared with a minority of Republicans and conservatives.

So what does this mean? According to Gallup:

"Socialism" is not a completely negative term in today’s America. About a third of Americans respond positively when they hear the term. Some of this reaction may reflect unusual or unclear understandings of what socialism means.

Duh. This is not a surprising conclusion given the fact our schools and mainstream media seem to have their own pop-culture definition of what "socialism" means, ignoring history's lessons of what socialism in practice is really like.