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.