More Than 75% of Democrats Would Support a Socialist for President: Gallup

[Autumn]

"When Americans—especially millennials—think of 'socialism,' they primarily think about Bernie Sanders, Western European democracies, income equality, and access to healthcare."

byJulia Conley, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/11/more-75-democrats-would-support-socialist-president-gallup?fbclid=IwAR3nRpGxRAL-33iEbZqXJqavxi501VHQi36vZhFDR2RTQQ9AM0rFyfRXYV0

A new Gallup survey showing most Americans would not be willing to vote for a socialist also revealed that an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters said they would back a candidate like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is leading in national polls.

More than three-quarters of Democratic voters surveyed—76%—told Gallup they would support a presidential candidate who identified as a socialist.

A large chunk of independent voters said they would back such a candidate, with 45% saying so, while only 17% of Republicans reported the same. Overall, 45% of 1,033 respondents said they would back a socialist in the poll, which had a margin of error of four percentage points.

The poll was released Tuesday as voters in New Hampshire head to the polls, a day after Sanders and one of his most high-profile surrogates, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), rallied more than 7,500 voters in Durham, New Hampshire.

Both politicians identify as democratic socialists and promote a vision of the U.S. which would more closely resemble other wealthy countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Residents of those Nordic nations benefit from government-run healthcare which is free at the point of delivery and which has been shown to have better health outcomes for the population; public college that is tuition-free or nearly free; and robust labor protections including guaranteed paid family leave, vacation time, and unions.

"We're moving forward," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We're moving forward to a multiracial democracy, forward to guaranteed healthcare, forward to a living wage, for fighting for our neighbors."

Headlines regarding the survey suggested it had dire implications for a socialist candidate in the 2020 election, despite the fact that the majority of respondents with negative feelings about socialism would be less likely to support any Democratic candidate than the Democratic respondents.

As Common Dreams reported last October, an annual poll regarding attitudes about socialism revealed why Democratic voters aren't fearful of the word, despite fear-mongering by the corporate media and President Donald Trump about socialist countries.

"When Americans—especially millennials—think of 'socialism,' they primarily think about Bernie Sanders, Western European democracies, income equality, and access to healthcare," acknowledged the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation of the poll, which showed that 70% of U.S. millennials would back a socialist for president. "They also do not associate socialism with communism and authoritarianism."

Link to tweet

[handmade34]

1. Democrats

[Autumn]

2. Yeah, and as a Democrat I 100% agree.

[handmade34]

8. as of this week

according to Gallup... of people surveyed, 27% consider themselves a Republican, 27% consider themselves a Democrat and 45% consider themselves an Independent... so 75% of 27% is not all that impressive

yes, I know it is bigger picture than that but... it is a big Country with lots of different people and I don't think that many people are aware enough or have enough critical thinking skills to figure it out

I am a Democrat and I would vote for a Democratic Socialist if there was a chance... but not now, not here and not Bernie (unless, of course, he is our nominee )

I am fighting right now for our survival as a Country not an ideology

[PatSeg]

12. Exactly

We cannot win a presidential election with 75% of the Democratic vote. As you say, we are fighting for the survival of our country. We can't afford to take the chance that the majority of Americans would vote for a Democratic Socialist.

[Demsrule86]

20. +100000

[TwilightZone]

3. That doesn't help in November.

Democrats aren't the only ones allowed to vote in a general election.

The 76% figure is probably low. I suspect that if Sanders becomes the nominee, nearly all Democrats will vote for him in November. I don't think that's ever been in question. I'm not sure the same can be said about his supporters should someone else win, particularly someone like Bloomberg.

[Autumn]

7. Young people who are liberal and don't identify with the Democratic party have no fear of socialism.

[TwilightZone]

10. Still irrelevant.

Young liberals aren't the only ones who will be voting in November. Based on the first two states, the groundswell of new, young voters Sanders' supporters have been promising has yet to materialize. That's partly why Sanders has underperformed.

Maybe they'll show up later, but we shouldn't discount the rest of the electorate hoping that a relatively small, relatively unreliable voting bloc is going to win the election for us.

[Vogon_Glory]

40. As was said before, young liberal Democrats aren't the only ones who vote

Silent Generation, Baby Boomer, and evening Generation X reactionaries and bigots are not only known to go to the polls, but outvote youthful liberal Democrats in all too many states, giving their states’ votes to Republicans.

I’m sure you’ve noticed what happened in Florida and Texas when the aged reactionaries outvoted the young liberal Democrats, and those young liberal Democrats’ non-affiliated, ill-informed and non-voting peers stayed home and played tiddlywinks instead of voting in 2010, 2014, and 2016.

[Demsrule86]

21. I dont agree. Outside of this forum, there are Democrats who will not vote for

Sanders. The idea put forth by Sanders supporters that Bernie should be the nominee because his supporters won't vote for any nominee but sanders means we need to seek new ways to win and tell the extortionist to fuck off.

After the GOP unleashes oppo hell on sanders, we will lose the general. So we need to field a different nominee. Even if every Democrat voted ( I will) for Sanders which wont happen IMHO, we stiil need Indies...and he won't win them over.

[TwilightZone]

24. That could certainly be true. If we take the 76% at face value, it's not a good sign.

I'm assuming (hoping?) that if he's the Democratic nominee that most Dems and left-leaners will get behind him, but I also agree that I might be a bit optimistic there. He's alienated a lot of people, which I've always found to be a rather bizarre strategy for someone running to win.

I also agree about the GOP oppo plans. We know some of it already, and I'm not sure how we're going to counter it. Sanders has had difficulty explaining why socialism is OK. How is he going to handle questions about Ortega, etc.?

[Demsrule86]

27. I agree. I will support Bloomberg in Ohio if Biden and Warren are out.

We have to beat Trump.

[Rorey]

32. I'm one of those he has alienated

And many of his supporters have been alienating people too. It's a bizarre strategy for them too.

If he somehow wins the nomination, I'll vote for him. But I really am counting on being able to vote blue.

[NurseJackie]

4. I'm not. Millennials are an unreliable voting bloc...

I'm not. Millennials are an unreliable voting bloc.

The phrase "would support" comes across as having a subtext or more accurate meaning of "would grudgingly support if that was the only option". I'm not interpreting this as having a great deal of enthusiasm for choosing a Socialist to represent our party.

There are just too many good and loyal and stalwart DEMOCRATS to choose from. Why would we, as a party, ever need to dip into the Socialist pool? It's just totally unnecessary.

I say we should stick with our own: Democrats.

All I'm saying is that anyone who has such hostility and contempt for the Democratic party... to the point where they're telling LIES about "Democrats being corrupt" or LIES about "Democrats are ideologically bankrupt" or LIES about "Democrats are the party of the elite" or LIES about "no difference between Democrats and Republicans"... well, it's clear to me that anyone who says such things should not be the leader and standard-bearer of our party. That's all.

We can do better.

[Demsrule86]

28. + 10000

[still_one]

30. WOW!!! Well said

[Rorey]

35. Yeah, what you said

+ a million

[stonecutter357]

5. good let's go Joe !

[beastie boy]

6. Only 45% of American voters would consider voting for a socialist. Fewer than 5 years ago.

That's what Common Dreams is not telling you.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/285563/socialism-atheism-political-liabilities.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

Just one group tested -- socialists -- receives majority opposition. Less than half of Americans, 45%, say they would vote for a socialist for president, while 53% say they would not.

[Celerity]

9. +100000

from the Gallup survey that Common Dreams is trying to spin up

[still_one]

31. Please, stop confusing me with the fact.........

[TwilightZone]

11. It's actually in their article. They just chose to discount it.

As I said up-thread, that would be fine if only Democrats were allowed to vote in November.

[beastie boy]

14. Common Dreams is a joke of a source. Their goal is propaganda, not information.

This is why I always check where their information is coming from, and more often than not, it turns out they ignore the bulk of their own sources and just publish whatever suits them, no matter how out of context it is.

[TwilightZone]

18. Agreed.

It's often more editorializing and pushing a narrative than anything approaching journalism, even when claiming to be the latter.

[Thomas Hurt]

13. These polls about socialism are loaded. This country can't even agree on a reasonable definition.

Is it just anything a christofascist dislikes or is everyone a socialist because we all use and benefit from gov't dollars.

[TwilightZone]

15. Not sure I'd agree.

As the article notes, I think the average voter thinks of Sanders when asked the question because he's the only prominent socialist in the past two cycles. He's the primary reason Gallup asked the question back in 2015 and continues to do so today.

I agree that the definition is problematic, but Sanders hasn't helped there. He often claims that things are socialist that aren't (like Denmark) and he's not a socialist in the European sense in the least. The DSA endorsed him, but doesn't think he's socialist enough because he isn't calling for the overthrow of capitalism, which they support.

[beastie boy]

16. This is exactly the problem.

"This country can't even agree on a reasonable definition." But the majority do agree they don't want it. This is a gold mine for a demagogue like Trump. As long as he manages to slap a "socialist" label on anyone, he is guaranteed to have the electotrate oppose the candidate, whether they know WTF they are talking about or not.

[colsohlibgal]

17. It's All Semantics

Once again most everyone loves Medicare and it is socialism. Democratic style. It has zero to do with Autocracy.

[dubyadiprecession]

19. We need nearly all voting Democrats and a majority of independents to win.

75% isn’t enough.

[Demsrule86]

23. And after the opo research is unleashed , Sanders will lose. We wont get the voters we

need, and we could lose down ticket too.

[Peacetrain]

22. Well they sure as heck are not showing up for the socialist if that is their preference

Me thinks that poll is a bit screwy

[Demsrule86]

25. +100000

[brooklynite]

26. Sure is a shame that they let Republicans and Independents vote too...

So far, data suggests that 25-30% of Democrats would vote for a Socialist.

[Act_of_Reparation]

29. These surveys don't tell us much.

People put a lot less stock in ideological labels than they let on. They tend to view each candidate individually. If you want to know whether people will vote for Bernie Sanders, you have to ask them if they will vote for Bernie Sanders. Asking if they will vote for a socialist will return wildly different results.

It's like the old, "What do you think of the President?/What do you think of Richard Nixon?" disparity from ye olde times.

[TwilightZone]

37. That introduces its own issues, though.

I think most people know he's a socialist. I also think most would think of Sanders automatically when asked the question because he's been in the presidential election picture for five years now. It seems obvious that Gallup asked the question in 2015 and continues to do so today for that very reason. From that perspective, it's not as generic a question as it might seem.

Playing devil's advocate for a moment, looking at the flip-side, if people say they won't vote for a socialist but don't yet know that Sanders is a socialist, then the polls indicating that they would vote for Sanders vs. Trump might be misleading. Do they change their minds? Probably not, but we don't really know.

[aeromanKC]

33. Which is why Bernie cannot win in November

75% is not going to cut. Especially when factored in voter suppression voter roll manipulation and electronic voting machine irregularities.

[still_one]

34. I am thinking of starting a poll, would you vote for a socialist over voldemort?

[Jose Garcia]

36. So, we should nominate a guy who 25% of Democrats won't support?

Please tell me more of this brilliant plan.

[ebbie15644]

38. maybe but

will that translate to the the presidency, the house and the senate? I'm from western PA and I don't see it

[Fiendish Thingy]

39. Bookmarking to share with pearl clutchers later nt

[mathematic]

41. Don't you normally get 90% or so party support?

75% seems like a catastrophe.

[Kaleva]

42. Need majority of Independents and some Repubs in order to win.

[Happy Hoosier]

43. That's not enough. We need close to 100%.

If 25% of Democrats don't support the nominee, we lose. Just sayin'...

[wyldwolf]

44. yeah, if that 75% was a sure thing for Bernie, he'd still lose.

[Awsi Dooger]

45. 75% is a tiny number among your own side

It is a laughably low number. All you have to do is compare to the 97% of Republicans who approve of Trump.

This should be a disqualifying number for anyone paying attention to how it translates elsewhere, and not merely in amazement that it's well above 50%

Next thing you'll know we'll be told that 75% of Wisconsinites support cheese

[denem]

46. 24% of Dems, 55% of Americans not willing to vote for a socialist. eom

https://news.gallup.com/poll/285563/socialism-atheism-political-liabilities.aspx