Here we go again.
Socialism is coming back, according to a friend and enemy similar. a new NBC survey now suggests that most registered voters don't like capitalism.
A Gallup poll conducted in September also found that support for capitalism was displacement. A Data for Progress poll conducted around the same time showed that, after asking some decidedly important questions about democratic socialism, people liked democratic socialism. Still, political They combined the results to declare: “Capitalism is out…and socialism is in.” And just this week, an NPR podcast dedicated a segment to explaining “How socialism became sexy.”
this has happened before. In 2018, Gallup discovered for the first time that a majority of Democrats had a more favorable view of “socialism” than “capitalism.” and we have similar headlines as a result. These polls no doubt explain in part why Democratic presidential primary candidates ran overwhelmingly in the Bernie Sanders lane in 2020. However, Joe Biden, the candidate who largely avoided that lane, won the nomination.
Like Sanders, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani describes himself as a democratic socialist. Its popularity has led many to claim that democratic socialism is also popular. It may well be, especially in New York City. But what is played in New York may not have reach outside the Big Apple. In fact, Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate for governor in neighboring New Jersey, which shares much of the same media market, did not run as a democratic socialist and defeated primary candidates who more or less did.
But my goal here is not to be an expert. My problem is these periodic, poll-driven “socialism is coming” fads.
To begin with, thematic surveys (even when done well) are not very reliable. Change one word and you will get very different results. For decades, if a program is called “wellness,” Americans won't like it. Call it “poor assistance” and Americans like it a lot better.
It is also difficult to prevent other issues from influencing the polls. Capitalism's popularity fell (particularly among Democrats) during President Trump's first term. He has fallen again during his second term. Is it really that difficult to imagine that people associate capitalism with the avowed party of capitalism? When that party is in power and unpopular, shouldn't it be surprising that what it claims to defend is (slightly) less popular as well?
And then there's the confusing fact that Trump's brand of capitalism isn't exactly uncut free markets (which I like). It's not socialism, but it's definitely close to “state capitalism“: a system that involves massive government interventions in the economy, usually on behalf of favored industries. Most serious libertarians would rather eat glass than call Trump's program of massive tariffs, cronyism, industrial planning, and partial government ownership of industries “capitalism.”
There is a famous… and widely attributed — Line that the problem of socialism is socialism, but the problem of capitalism is the capitalists. When the administration is run from the top by billionaires who fly on private planes and apparently get rich off of insider deals and literally dressed as “The Great Gatsby” At a time when SNAP benefits are drying up for 40 million Americans, you'd think capitalism stinks even worse.
But let's get Trump out of there. When the status quo is unpopular, if you call it “capitalism,” they will have problems with it. Call the economic status quo “capitalism” and many people will choose option number two, whether we call it “socialism” or not.
It's not that the new “socialists” have flipped through the books in their free time and suddenly found a new respect for Karl Marx, Sidney Webb, Michael Harrington or some other socialist thinker.
Socialist intellectuals find it quite difficult to agree on what socialism is. The best definition that the widely read editors of the socialist magazine Dissent could come up with in 1954 was “Socialism is the name of our desire.” The idea that millions of Americans have a fully formed and coherent understanding of the concept, much less know how to implement socialism, is absurd. Asking people if they like socialism or capitalism is a “vibes” question and little else.
Of course, socialists have a right to rejoice at improving the vibe. But the best way to sour Americans on socialism is to put socialists in charge, which is why I'm not too worried about America becoming a socialist country.
UNKNOWN: @JonahDispatch
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Ideas expressed in the piece.
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The author argues that surveys showing greater support for socialism are fundamentally unreliable and vulnerable to question framing, and notes that changing terminology (such as labeling a program “welfare” versus “poor assistance”) produces dramatically different results.
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The author argues that the decline in support for capitalism among Democrats during both Trump administrations reflects an association with an unpopular party rather than a genuine ideological conversion, suggesting that the status quo becomes unpopular regardless of its economic label.
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The author characterizes Trump's economic approach as “state capitalism” involving tariffs, cronyism, and industrial planning rather than free market capitalism, and proposes that this misidentification of capitalist politics contributes to the declining favorability of capitalism.
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The author asserts that most Americans who adopt the terminology of socialism lack a coherent understanding of socialist theory or implementation, and describes support for socialism as fundamentally a matter of “vibes” disconnected from serious intellectual commitment.
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The author predicts that socialism will never be dominant in the United States because historical patterns show that Americans reject socialism once socialists actually gain power, dismissing enthusiasm for contemporary socialism as simply another periodic fad similar to 2018 polling trends.
Different points of view on the subject.
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Recent polling data indicates substantial and growing support for socialism among Democrats: 57 percent view socialism positively compared to only 47 percent have favorable views of capitalism.[1]suggesting that this represents more than just a fleeting feeling.
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Democratic candidates with genuine socialist or democratic socialist commitments, including Bernie Sanders and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, have demonstrated significant political traction and popularity.[2]indicating that some voters engage seriously with the substantive policy positions of these candidates rather than simply responding to electoral frames.
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The internal diversity of Democratic economic views reflects genuine political disagreements with real interests, as some Democrats support the “abundance agenda” focused on reducing government bureaucracy, while others oppose it as a rollback of environmental and labor protections.[2]suggesting that the discourse of socialism connects with substantive programmatic debates rather than disconnected messages.
