Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has embraced his political identity, he once proclaimed that he is “a socialist and everyone knows that.” Well, it appears that the majority of Democrats have embraced his political identity as well. The Washington Post,
Once upon a time, Gallup included “Socialist” in its list of political affiliations in polling. (We’ll take this opportunity to remind the reader that Socialist refers to a member of the Socialist political party, while socialist is someone who adheres to the tenets of socialism — which we’ll come back to.) At no point did more than 1 percent of respondents call themselves Socialists, and Gallup, which started asking the question in 1939, stopped asking by 1948…
Communism and Communists are not socialism and Socialists, but the distinction is increasingly being lost. Last year, a Reason-Rupe poll asked people about their attitudes toward various economic systems. More than half of respondents viewed capitalism favorably, while 36 percent viewed socialism positively. Among Democrats, capitalism and socialism were viewed similarly, with 52 percent of those responding giving a thumbs up. (Slightly more Democrats viewed socialism very favorably, but not to a point of statistical significance.)
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