By AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX
Updated 11:08 AM EDT, September 8, 2025
Capitalism’s image has slipped with U.S. adults overall since 2021, the survey finds, and the results show a gradual but persistent shift in Democrats’ support for the two ideologies over the past 15 years, with socialism rising as capitalism falls. The shifts underscore deep divisions within the party about whether open support for socialism will hurt Democrats’ ability to reach moderates or galvanize greater support from people who are concerned about issues like the cost of living.
…But Democrats under 50 are much less likely to view capitalism favorably, while the opinions of Democrats ages 50 and older haven’t shifted meaningfully, according to Gallup.
Well if you’re only polling Democrats, the poll isn’t giving you any real understanding. The actual socialists have been methodically and intentionally pushed out of the party. And young folks have clearly heard the message, as they have broadly rejected the Democrats in return.
There’s a reason the Democrats are polling even lower than Trump, and that’s precisely because of how many people have embraced socialism. Trying to understand that only within the context of those still with the party is pointless.
young folks have clearly heard the message, as they have broadly rejected the Democrats in return.
You wouldn’t know it by the data.
But this is an age-old story. Millennials were far more Dem-leaning 15 years ago, during the Obama Era. Boomers were more Dem-leaning during the Clinton Era. Great Depression voters drifted from FDR to Nixon in the intervening 30 years.
There’s a reason the Democrats are polling even lower than Trump
Sure. They’ve lost the mandate of Corporate Mass Media as media has been consolidated in the Tech Sector and the Techies have nakedly embraced Randian Objectivism.
When your only options “a lot dem”, “a little dem”, “a little pub”, and “a lot pub”, you don’t get any information on who is neither and why.
So I guess the point went completely over your head. Again, you’re only acknowledging the existence of data that lies within the duopoly.
Yes, young people are rejecting the GOP, but that has not translated into gains for the Dems because young people today are much farther left than the Democratic Party.
Again, you’re only acknowledging the existence of data that lies within the duopoly.
I’m acknowledging turnout in the last election cycle. Third parties did not notably over perform.
Yes, young people are rejecting the GOP, but that has not translated into gains for the Dems
Young people haven’t been rejecting the GOP either. Republicans are getting about the same percentage of the youth vote as they have over the last twenty years.
Dems lost votes across the board in '24. It wasn’t unique to young voters. Republicans gained slightly relative to 2020. It was not an otherwise noteworthy election with regard to turnout.
So you’re just doubling down. Dissatisfaction with the Dems & GOP did not translate into support for third parties (Democrats suing third parties off the ballots of course impacted that), but it did translate into a significant increase in non-voters.
The people like you pushing this erasure of the rising preference for socialism in this country are exactly the fascists demanding the Dems move right to attract traditionally GOP voters. You are creating the problem, and then trying to sell the Dems as the solution, but people aren’t falling for it.
So you’re just doubling down.
I’m reading off the numbers. You don’t seem to like them.
Using data from the University of Florida Election Lab, a new analysis by the Environmental Voter Project shows that 85.9 million eligible voters skipped the 2024 general election, far surpassing the 76.8 million ballots cast for Donald Trump or the 74.3 million for Kamala Harris.
You’re assuming “Did Not Vote” is some kind of homogeneous political mass. There’s a yawning absence of evidence for this claim. “Did Not Vote” is as consistently a sign of political apathy as partisan disgust.
The people like you pushing this erasure of the rising preference for socialism
These people are not socialists and you’re deluding yourself if you believe “not voting” is some kind of alignment with your preferred voting preference.
We can come at this the other way. Look at the elections in '92 and '96 when we did have a popular third party - The Reform Party. Are you going to come at me and announce Ross Perot was a socialist?
No, you’re cherry picking numbers, and unintentionally proving my point that the people supporting either party are pretending the rest of the country doesn’t exist.
I would post a link with polling showing that socialism has become widely popular among the majority of the electorate, but I already did that in this thread. The majority of people in this country now view socialism favorably, and we have the data to prove it. You’re attempting to claim that Dem loyalists largely rejecting socialism is more relevant, so again, you’re laser focused on just pulling more conservatives into the Democratic Party and taking it farther right.
Yep. I liked techies better when they were libertarians. Now they are just straight up Nazis drinking their own tech elite ubermenschen kool aid. They are anti-libertarian now because freedom would mean allow free market competition to their aspiring monopolies. They’d rather just control the government.
Americans aren’t socialist. They just hate pathetic losers.
And Democrats have become the party of pathetic losing. They don’t even try to fight back.
Hating liberals for never delivering the promises of liberalism is how a lot of actual socialists start out.
Profits percentages are at record levels, and more public funds are transferred to private companies than ever before. That’s all neoliberalism promised, and they definitely delivered.
Liberalism promised freedom, democracy, human rights, job security, the “American dream”, etc etc. It was all lies, of course, but they did promise it. People realizing they were lied to are ripe for radicalization.
No. Maybe some politicians made empty promises to constituents, but liberalism itself never promised socialism. Quite the opposite- it swore to tear down socialist institutions, and convert public services into for-profit businesses. And it’s been wildly successful in delivering on those promises.
Those empty promises are the essential basis for liberal ideology, a lot of disappointed people actually did believe. Liberalism didn’t promise socialism, obviously, but socialism is the only thing that deliver the promises that liberalism lied about.
Nope. Liberalism has nothing to do with those empty campaign promises of socialist policies. It has always been loudly and proudly a capitalist, imperialist ideology focused on increased resource extraction, and transferring public funds to private wealth.
“We have got to get these dang moderates to the polls.”
-fucking idiots
watching videos of dedicated & well regarded communists on tiktok and rednote push for an embrace of american moderates to help push the US zeitgeist to shift their views politically leftwards makes me wonder if they are idiots.
You gotta be pretty oblivious to think the current system is working for most people.
Such a view often stems from consuming media that perpetuates the simplistic propaganda of blaming China, Russia, or immigrants rather than examining the system’s inherent flaws.
Denialism is ready and cognitive dissonance is unpleasant.
Get organized!
This type of opinion thing just annoys me. When it comes to private vs government control I want a mix. One is just the reality of it. Given property tax land is essentially rented out anyway and given regulations I can totally see it just being recognized as government leases. This would actually be nicer if the terms are fixed so that people don’t have to worry about “owning” a home they will then get taxed out of. Then there is that if there is no real competition then we should not pretend private enterprise is the best solution. Without multiple electric and gas infrastructure there is realistically only one option for my utilities. Having several suppliers is just capitalist theater as far as im concerned. Further anything necessary should have a government option be it healthcare or education. Now when it comes to tv’s or toys or other stupid crap that is totally fine to be full on capitalist.
Markets can have a place in early socialist development, especially for luxuries like you said, but there’s no reason to really keep it when the profit motive overstays its usefulness. It sounds like you’d be a big fan of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, which is similar to what you describe, only with the caveat that the goal is to fully collectivize production in the long run as this becomes more feasible.
well democracy and civil rights are more important than either socialism or capitalism in a country/government/society. Thats the start to then determine what people want.
Democracy and civil rights are only really achievable when the working class is in charge, ergo socialism is a prerequisite.
the working class being in charge is no guarantee of democracy and civil rights.
It’s a prerequisite for it.
I completely disagree.
How much democracy does your workplace have?
The state is an extension of the ruling class of society, and will use its authority to oppress the other classes and prevent real change. Under capitalism, this class is the bourgeoisie, ergo the working class is crushed.
great pontification.
Do you actually disagree with the point, or just the way I said it? If you want me to elaborate, the wealthy, those in charge of the large firms and key industries and thus the real power in society, are the ones that manipulate the state through lobbying, control of the media, etc. Socialism becomes a prerequisite for working class control because the state will never be their true ally when already under control of the wealthiest.
You disagree because you’re utterly ignorant on the subject you’re attempting to debate, and you evidently haven’t even spent any time thinking about it.
12·2 days ago[…] It is difficult for me to imagine what “personal liberty” is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.
In a democracy with human rights that liberty that is enjoyed is the states measures to mitiagate the circumstances and if it is not the ability as a member of a democracy to change it by voting, speaking out, protesting, etc.
So socialism.
Only 37% of U.S. adults have a positive image of big business, down from 49% in 2010.
Oligarchist and Corporatist supremacism is the actual evil in what “you” understand as Capitalism, which is effectively supremacy of the wealthy with favourable tax rates that force the rest of us to actually pay for government. Payroll taxes, as an example, is a higher source of revenue than corporate or personal income taxes. The gap between approval of big business vs capitalism is the gap in understanding what is wrong with “capitalism”.
Free and fair markets, as defined by founder of capitalism: Adam Smith, is a non-evil social organization principle. UBI is fundamentally compatible with free and fair markets, giving people more power to refuse unfair labour or rental propositions, and to be aware that zionist militarism costs something that could be more cash to them instead.
Yesterday on CNBC, the most zionist, oligarchist, corporatist supremacist media in US, and ADL hosting service, kept up on its zionazi campaign to desperately derail the Mamdami campaign by inviting zionazi pig vermin, Andrew Cuomo, to shout out every delusional fearmongering lie imaginable describing Mamdami campaign. They immediately followed up with 2 of the most demonic sub-human zionazi oligarchist supremacist GOP members to discuss these survey results and boost the Oligarchist supremacist rule of US. Tim Scott, and Vavek somethingindian-swami.
While both portrayed socialism as a system where no one is allowed to make any money, both have chosen career paths that oversea the largest national spending in history of universe, where Tim Scott, has no limit on military giveaways to Israel or anti-China spending. GOP philosophy of socializing costs for privatized profits is ultimate political position for bribery and post-office rewards.
Tim Scott praised himself for the “socialist” success story of being a fatherless public housing survivor. Vivek told us that US 7th graders have same academic achievement as China’s 3rd graders, which didn’t sound like he was going with the Florida capitalist supremacist solution of forcing children into coal mines, instead of that sweet socialist education investment in a future.
