70 Percent of Democrats Say Socialism Would Be Good for America: Survey

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduces health care legislation titled the "Medicare for All Act of 2019" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 9, 2019. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Seventy percent of Democrats say “some form of socialism” would be a “good thing” for the United States, according to a new Gallup survey.

While socialism is popular among Democratic voters, a majority of voters overall, 51 percent, say embracing it would be bad for the country, the Gallup survey found.

Just 25 percent of Democrats said some form of socialism would be “a bad thing for the country as a whole,” according to the survey, which Gallup released on May 20.

Among Republicans, 84 percent of respondents said that embracing some form of socialism would be bad for the United States. A plurality of independents, 48 percent, said the same.

Gallup’s writeup of the survey did not note that it showed 70 percent of Democrats supporting some form of socialism, which was included in the full results.

Establishment Democrats, meanwhile, have attempted to distance their party from socialism ahead of the 2020 election.

“I do reject socialism as an economic system. If people have that view, that’s their view. That is not the view of the Democratic Party,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last month.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington, on April 3, 2019. Al Drago/Getty Images

Two high-profile Democrats in the House, freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

The survey, which was conducted April 17-30 and had a margin of error of six percentage points, marked even more enthusiastic support for socialism among Democrats than in Gallup’s 2018 survey on the same subject.

The survey that year found that 57 percent of Democrats had a favorable view of socialism. That survey also marked the first time that Democrats had a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism.

Although Democratic voters are increasingly comfortable with socialist ideas, the only open socialist in the party’s presidential primary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has consistently trailed former Vice President Joe Biden in national primary polls.

Biden is polling just above 38 percent in RealClearPolitics’ average of national polls, while Sanders is polling just below 19 percent. Sanders has the full backing of the DSA.

By Peter Hasson

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