A specter is haunting the Democratic Party, the specter of far-left socialism. Once confined largely to college campuses and the political fringe, socialism has found an increasingly comfortable home within the party. Some candidates who openly embrace the label are winning Democratic primaries, while ideas once associated with the socialist left have moved into the party’s mainstream.
And increasingly, national Democrats appear convinced that Americans are ready to follow them in this march toward socialism.
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A word of caution comes from the polling, however. Gallup’s recent surveys on this topic suggest the Democrats are misreading the country. Americans are hardly uncritical defenders of capitalism, and many, especially younger voters, find the promises of free housing, free groceries, and, well, free everything associated with socialism appealing. But widespread enthusiasm for socialism is lacking.
When Americans are asked to consider the economic systems themselves, their preferences become much clearer.
The poll numbers are striking. Only 39% of Americans have a positive view of socialism, compared with 54% who view capitalism positively. (Of course, 39% openly supporting a system that denigrates individual liberty is hardly reassuring, but it is far from the kind of majority many Democrats envision.)
The system of “free enterprise” leaves socialism far behind, earning a positive rating from an overwhelming 81% of Americans. The vast majority of Americans understand that the freedom to engage in economic activities, the freedom to own property, the freedom to build, and the freedom to succeed are inherently American — and they create better access to every facet of our economy than any government-run system.
Americans are making distinctions that national Democratic leaders are simply ignoring.
Gallup went further than the usual favorable-or-unfavorable question and asked Americans, in their own words, what they considered good and bad about each economic system. The results are even more revealing.
Asked to name something good about socialism, the most common answer was simple: nothing. Thirty percent of Americans volunteered that response, while another 15% could not identify anything positive about socialism at all. In other words, 45% of the country could not name a single advantage.
That poll question perfectly sums up the world’s history of dabbling with socialism: Nothing good has come from it.
And yet, despite socialism’s negative poll numbers, far-left candidates running openly as socialists or closely associated with the socialist left have demonstrated an ability to excite Democratic primary voters, particularly younger voters and those in some of the nation’s most progressive communities. Abdul el Sayed won the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan, while self-described “democratic socialist” Francesca Hong, who ran on a platform of dismantling everything resembling the free market, came within a few thousand votes of winning the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin.
These races follow New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise in New York and other victories by Democratic Socialists of America candidates in heavily Democratic districts.
The geography of these primaries is revealing. In Michigan, el Sayed’s narrow victory was powered in part by strong support around Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. In Wisconsin, Hong drew some of her strongest support from the Madison area, home to the University of Wisconsin, although she ultimately fell short statewide. Socialism’s abstract promises find an especially receptive audience on college campuses and among younger progressive voters.
The danger for Democrats is mistaking success in a Democratic primary for evidence of a national ideological shift. Primary voters are a self-selected slice of the electorate, and the voters most receptive to socialism are disproportionately represented within the Democratic coalition. Gallup found that 66% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism. Among independents, that figure falls to 38%.
We have more work to do, of course. Given the disastrous effects of socialism, the economic system’s favorability should be in the single digits. Mamdani’s radical experiment in New York City may serve the useful purpose of reminding Americans that socialism has the predictable effect of chasing away job-creators and wealth, leaving poverty in its wake. Mamdani seems determined to showcase everything that fails under socialism.
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But here’s the key takeaway. The more Americans understand about socialism, the less favorably they view it. A few years ago, the organization I lead, Tea Party Patriots Action, produced a documentary to educate Americans about the dangers and failures of socialism. That documentary, “Surviving Socialism,” argues that socialism is a system where thriving is impossible. Economic flourishing simply does not happen. The best one can hope for is to survive socialism.
The contrast between surviving socialism and thriving in America is the heart of the divide on the ballots in November. Not that the national Democrats are paying attention.
Jenny Beth Martin is Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.
