6 in 10 Democrats have positive feelings about socialism

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 22 February 2016

Good news for self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders: Six in 10 Democrats believe that socialism has a "positive impact" on society, according to a poll released Monday by the American Action Network.

The favorable impression of socialism holds across demographic categories in the party, with a plurality of voters in every age, gender, and racial grouping expressing positive feelings toward the ideology. Perhaps not surprisingly, among demographics with comparatively less enthusiasm for socialism — African-Americans and voters older than 66 — Sanders' competitor, Hillary Clinton, performed the strongest.

The poll described socialism as the belief that "corporations have too much control and that the capitalist system is set up to favor the rich and powerful," and "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."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.