A poll conducted by a conservative advocacy group shows that 6 in 10 of likely Democratic primary voters believe that socialism has a "positive impact" on society.
By a margin of 46-19, Democrats under the age of 45 prefer socialism to capitalism.
Politico:
.The findings will fuel Republican claims that Democrats are increasingly out of the political mainstream - a point made frequently by the party's candidates. In a January Bloomberg/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, 43 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers said they would use the word 'socialist' describe themselves.
"Now you finally have someone who's running for president - not just running, but doing very well, is very competitive, may very well be the nominee - who calls himself a socialist," said Shields, a veteran GOP operative and former Republican National Committee chief of staff. "So we thought it would be worth going past the leadership of the party to see what the primary electorate itself thinks."
While socialism prevailed over capitalism among voters in every demographic, its smallest margins came from two of the groups with which Clinton has been strongest: voters over 66 years of age (36 percent preferred socialism, 28 percent sided with capitalism) and African-Americans (40 percent to 27 percent).
The ideology is viewed favorably by 43 percent of the primary voters, and unfavorably by 30 percent, implying an approval rating of +13. Capitalism's favorability, according to the survey, is +17.
The two competing economic theories were described to respondents by the pollster. Socialism was defined as a system for those who believe "corporations have too much control and that the capitalist system is set up to favor the rich and powerful," and that "the only way to police corporations and protect the citizens is for the government to take a larger role in managing the economy to make sure that every individual has equal access to basic necessities and public goods, even if that means that some people have to transfer their wealth to others."
Free market capitalism, meanwhile, was described as the world-view for those who "say that it's not the government's job to pick winners and losers and that government intervention only leads to inefficiency. They say that capitalism produces the greatest amount of personal and economic freedom for every individual and [it] ultimately results in the best economic outcome for society, even if some people are left behind because they can't compete."
That's a rather nebulous definition of socialism. I prefer Webster's:
...a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies.
Socialism is not "government taking a larger role" in running the economy. Socialism is the government controlling the economy. By necessity, government would assign you to a job that it thinks you are best suited for. You would be paid what the government thinks is fair. You would probably live where the government told you to live.
As has been said many times, socialism is the sharing of scarcity. Socialists assume people will work just as hard, produce just as much, be just as innovative if they are working for the "good of the community" as they would if they were working for themselves and their family. It is the age old dream of socialists that by appealing to the better angels of our nature that we will all live better and more equally.
Except, of course, those who run things. They deserve more than the rest of us plebes, so they get the dachas on the Black Sea, the special stores they can shop in with no shortages of anything, and if we're lucky, a special traffic lane they can drive while in the city.
This is the future of America if we let the Democrats continue their transformation of America. Welcome to the Brave New World.
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