Democrats, perhaps because they differ from the rest of the electorate in their feelings about socialism, are bad at estimating how socialism would play in a general election. Two weeks ago, in the Yahoo News poll, a 49 percent plurality of Democrats said most, nearly all, or about half of Americans would consider voting for a presidential candidate who called himself a democratic socialist. The guess was incorrect. According to the same poll, only 35 percent of voters said they’d consider voting for such a candidate. Democrats got it wrong.Democrats think that the socialist label is harmless because it has no negative connotation to them and in their circles.
Optics
Jim Geraghty cautions against complacency, but still believes the "socialist" flag is voting-booth poison in November:
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Democrats think that the socialist label is harmless because it has no negative connotation to them and in their circles.
I literally know people for whom this is true. They will say that they "don't know anyone who thinks socialism is bad". I mean, when you purge your friends list of all people who disagree with your political beliefs... why on earth would you think that such a statement means a damned thing?
Many of the higher-educated class of progressives really mean something different by the word "socialist" anyway. They buy Bernie's line that he's really talking about Denmark or Norway because that's what they're thinking of -- or rather, what they think they're thinking of. As AVI has explored often at his place, the Nordic countries long ago abandoned their forays into socialism. Mostly it's a mythic image of happy Scandinavia rather than any actual place on earth that they're thinking of when they invoke the word.
(And as for Scandinavia's reality, hey, how's immigration going in Scandinavia?)
"Socialism", like any word ending in -ist, -ism, or -phobia, has no real fixed meaning anymore. It just means "wouldn't it be nice if we could get stuff without having to pay for it." What Geraghty noticed is that 'socialism' probably polls well but when you actually describe the implementation, i.e. you pay taxes so some kid you don't know can go to college for free, it suddenly becomes less appealing, like it did to that Iowa dad who confronted Elizabeth Warren.
And to be fair, their State Religion, scientism, vote shuffling, dead voters, and recount tactics tend to give them about 11-15% in elections, so to them it probably fits statistically.
The anti Leftists in US have their own voter manipulation tactics but Demoncrats have been doing it ever since slave and white Northern lynching days. That is experience for ya.
Grim, some of the norse countries do not have minimum wages... so, what exactly are these clown Americans talking about?
It's like the idiot statesmen who think importing some Japanese or Asian custom will fix an American problem. Yet they don't import any of the tradition or cultures that make that custom work.
This is a Service to Self, dark god inspired, profit in their bank account, con. And Americans keep voting for it, as expected.
That is true of humanity in general.
I thought the word "socialism" was losing its negative connotation, too, so I was surprised to see that didn't bear out in polls. I look forward to many more months of the fight between "No, I mean Socialism Lite" and "the only thing keeping you from being an outright Communist is your party's lack of control of the House and Senate, so PLEASE don't give this guy the House or the Senate."
"No, I mean socialism lite."
Exactly
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