With 2020 candidates and freshman members of Congress moving Democrats further left, the Republican Party is preparing to make the 2020 election a referendum of freedom vs. socialism.
With the Democrats embracing ideas like so-called “Medicare for all,” the Green New Deal, and a wealth tax, Republicans are now more emboldened than ever to label these policy proposals as straight-up socialist.
During the 2019 State of the Union address, President Trump said, “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”
However, the idea that America can become a socialist country is a bit more realistic than some might expect.
Polling shows Democrats are warming up to socialism over capitalism. In 2016, Gallup found that 56 percent of Democrats had a positive view of capitalism. By 2018, that approval number went down to 47 percent. Additionally, in 2018, 57 percent of Democrats had a positive view of socialism.
Mind you, this is a poll based on party affiliation. Once you break it down by generation, you’ll see that the rise of socialism is really coming from millennials.
In 2010, 68 percent of people aged 18 to 29 had a positive view of capitalism. In 2018, that number has dropped to 45 percent. Meanwhile, 51 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds have a positive view of socialism in 2018. Every demographic aged 30 and older had a more positive view of capitalism over socialism by a roughly two-to-one ratio.
A majority of Americans still reject socialism, but the rise of the next generation of Democrats is certainly bringing more socialist ideas into the discussion.
