Gallup: Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of Americans

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of Americans
Majority of Americans positive on capitalism, entrepreneurs, free enterprise, and small business
by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism," while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives.



"Socialism" was one of seven terms included in a Jan. 26-27 Gallup poll. Americans were asked to indicate whether their top-of-mind reactions to each were positive or negative. Respondents were not given explanations or descriptions of the terms.

Americans are almost uniformly positive in their reactions to three terms: small business, free enterprise, and entrepreneurs. They are divided on big business and the federal government, with roughly as many Americans saying their view is positive as say it is negative. Americans are more positive than negative on capitalism (61% versus 33%) and more negative than positive on socialism (36% to 58%).



http://www.gallup.com/poll/125645/Socialism-Viewed-Positively-Americans.aspx

[Better Believe It]

1. That much? Wow! And that's without any large socialist organization or group promoting it!

And an unending century long propaganda war in the schools and mass media against socialism.

Amazing!

[Kitty Herder]

4. That was my thought.

They can't kill the idea of socialism no matter how hard they try.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. Note to pugs: Calling a centrist president a socialist all the time has an effect...

To many Americans socialism must be whatever Barack Obama is because that's the only context in which they hear the word.

[JanMichael]

15. Agreed! Also I belive that might be a higher % than in pre-Revolution Russia.

Which is odd because they were WAY better organized sans email, Twitter, Facebook, etcetera.

I guess we need the corpos to behave a little more autocratic to get our asses in gear.

[LWolf]

23. +1,000

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[Kurt_and_Hunter]

7. I predict great things for your 11th post

[Warren Stupidity]

14. I predict no 11th post.

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[TheKentuckian]

6. Best newz in a while! The red scare has had fairly limited effect

considering decades of bullshit.

[YOY]

8. And the other 60% don't know what the word means.

n.t.

[Mojambo]

10. That is a strikingly high number given the all-out press against it.

Surprised to see that capitalism number so low.

[fujiyama]

11. Having taken a look at a recent chart of unemployment rates across Europe

the evil socialist Scandinavian countries like the Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark have relatively low unemployment rates. Hmmmm, interesting that those countries also have equitable health care, meaning companies don't have to worry about providing for their employees. And I'll admit I don't know about banking regulations there but I imagine it's more strict there.

But labels are labels. I don't care if we're "capitalistic", but any pure system with little oversight is bound to be a disaster. In reality European nations are mostly mixed economies with strong oversight by governments that haven't been corrupted too much by corporate interests. And their leaders are probably not blind ideologues like republicans (and many Democrats as well) here.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. The Dutch have a mandate system.

[Chemical Bill]

12. Meanwhile, road use continues unabated.

Do you think the corporate media will ever publicize what percentage of Americans take advantage of the socialist institutions already in place, such as schools, drinking water (oops, that's being privatized quickly), medicare and social security, etc.?

Bill

[troubledamerican]

17. Interstate Freeway System. Socialist. US economy would collapse without it. Overnight.

[anonymous171]

16. Actual Socialism is awesome.

If the workers actually owned and operated the means of production, things would be a lot better.

[CTLawGuy]

21. well under capitalism that is technically possible

but it's not socialism

Socialism is where the state owns the means of production and operates it on behalf of the people and for their benefit.

[Toucano]

18. "The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label."

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968).

[scheming daemons]

19. That's actually a very discouraging sign... 36% is the kind of number that gets killed in elections

When terms like "Free enterprise" are getting 86-10 ratings while "socialism" is getting a "36-58" rating....


...well then...


We need a new label for it.

[defendandprotect]

20. Good news!!

[sendero]

22. I've said it many times..

... but a few more won't hurt. In the coming years a lot of those morons calling Obama a "socialist" will be begging for a government handout.

The only question is how many of them will identify their own hypocrisy.