Late-night host Stephen Colbert said Tuesday that the primary elections so far seem to show that U.S. voters are mostly turned off by socialist candidates, as most of them are losing.
“Why do you need to call yourself ‘socialist’?” he asked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on his show. “Because that’s freighted with so much negativity in the United States.”
Colbert said that even though socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez captured some attention for winning her primary race in New York, that hasn’t been followed by a socialist wave in other districts.
“I’m just saying that, like, people are very excited about Ocasio-Cortez,” Colbert said. “But the people she campaigned for did not win their primaries. Only half the people you have campaigned for have won their primaries so far. So maybe there’s a little, there’s a little taint to socialism that turns people off.”
But Sanders rejected that assessment.
“I think the real issue is that the ideas we have been talking about, almost without exception, Stephen, are now ideas that are mainstream ideas that are supported by the vast majority of American people,” Sanders said.
Sanders said socialists support the idea of letting people earn a $15 per hour minimum wage, and guaranteeing healthcare for all, along with public colleges and universities that are free to attend.
A Gallup poll released Monday found Democrats’ support of capitalism has fallen since 2016. Forty-seven percent of Democrats had a positive view of capitalism, down from 56 percent two years ago. Fifty-seven percent of Democrats now viewed socialism in a positive light. Only 16 percent of Republicans were upbeat about socialism, the poll found.
