Bernie Sanders’ campaign has finally threatened Hillary Clinton’s winning margin enough that the mainstream media can no longer ignore him. However, much of the their discussion on Sanders still revolves around asking the same, tired question: Is America ready to elect a socialist?
Putting aside the tired refrain that Bernie’s actually a Democratic Socialist — which Sanders and Larry David joked on SNL last weekend is a “huuuuuge difference” — recent polls actually have some surprising things to say about American’s attitudes towards socialism, suggesting that “socialism” is not quite as toxic of a word as the media seems to think. Indeed, many people are starting to openly and passionately embrace it.
Take a look at the results from a recent survey by YouGov. Respondents were asked whether they had a “favorable or unfavorable opinion” of socialism and capitalism. The results of one key demographic may surprise you.
As you can see, the majority of young people under 30 actually support socialism MORE than capitalism by a fairly large margin — 43 to 32 percent. More surprisingly, Democrats in general are split equally, with both socialism and capitalism being rated at 42% favorability each.
The only demographics in which socialism trails capitalism by significant margins are, predictably, among more affluent families, people older than 65, and Republicans.
Furthermore, a Gallup poll from last year asked people to vote on whether they’d be willing to vote for a president if the candidate was female, gay, atheist, etc. Notice how as the demographics get younger, people are more likely to vote for a socialist president.
A whopping 69% of people under 30 would vote for a socialist. Keep in mind that these numbers are from June 2015, well before Bernie’s revolutionary momentum hit its stride. Many experts agree that his campaign has likely pushed these numbers even higher, particularly given that “socialism” was the most frequently searched-for word in 2015, according to Merriam Webster.
These numbers conclusively prove that while Bernie’s fight is far from over, a large portion of Americans are already willing to elect a democratic socialist.
Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW
The post It’s Official — Young Voters Have a Higher Opinion of Socialism than Capitalism appeared first on U.S. Uncut.