Callum: Can Socialism Ever Be More Than Just a Fad in America?

Here we go again.

According to the friend, socialism is coming back the enemy A brand new one NBC Poll Now suggests that a majority of registered voters dislike investors.

A September Gallup poll also found support for capitalism fall over. At the same time a poll for Progress showed that – after some decisive leading questions about democratic socialism – the public liked democratic socialism. still, politics He combined the results to declare: “Capitalism is out… and socialism is in.” And just this week, an NPR podcast devoted an episode to explaining “How Socialism Got Sexy“

This has happened before. In 2018, gallop For the first time, it was found that a majority of Democrats had a more favorable opinion of “socialism” than “capitalism.” And we got it Similar titles as a result. Such polls no doubt partly explain why the Democratic presidential primaries in 2020 have largely toed the Bernie Sanders line. Joe Biden, the candidate who mostly avoided that lane, won the nomination, however.

Like Sanders, New York City mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani describes himself as a democratic socialist. Its popularity has led many to claim that democratic socialism is also popular. This may be good, especially in New York City. But what’s playing out in NYC may not have legs outside of the Big Apple. In fact, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the New Jersey neighborhood, Mike Sherrill, who has much of the same media market, did not stand as a Democratic Socialist and defeated the primary candidates who did more or less.

But that is not my purpose here. My problem is with this round, poll-driven, “socialism is coming”.

For starters, polling issues—even when done well—are highly unreliable. Change one word and you will be very different The results. For decades, if you called a program “prosperity,” Americans would not like it. Call it “helping the poor” and Americans like it a lot.

It is also difficult to keep other issues from influencing voting issues. Capitalism’s popularity plummeted — especially among Democrats — during President Trump’s first term. It fell again during his second term. Is it really that hard to imagine people associating capitalism with a declared party of capitalism? When that party is in power and unpopular, shouldn’t it be surprising that what it claims is (somewhat) less popular?

And then there’s the ugly truth that Trump’s brand of capitalism isn’t exactly the stuff of the free market (which I love). It’s not socialism, but it sure is close.”State capitalism“—a system that involves extensive government intervention in the economy, usually on behalf of favored industries. Many serious libertarians would rather call the Trump program “capitalism” of extensive tariffs, cronyism, industrial planning, and partial government ownership of industries.

A famous one is – and widely attributed – That the problem of socialism is socialism, but the problem of capitalism is capitalism. When the agency is run by billionaires with private jets it seems to get rich through insider dealings and word of mouth Playing with “The Great Gatsby”. At a time when SNAP benefits are ending for 40 million Americans, you’d think capitalism would be in a bad mood.

But take Trump out of it. When the situation is unknown, if you say “capitalism” they will have problems with it. Call the economic condition “capitalism” and most people will choose option number two, whether you call it “socialism” or not.

It’s not as if new “socialists” have cracked open books in their spare time and suddenly have a newfound respect for Karl Marx, Sidney Webb, Michael Harrington, or any other socialist thinker.

Socialist intellectuals have a hard time agreeing on socialism. The best definition that the well-read editors of the socialist journal Descent could come in 1954. “Socialism is the name of our hope.” The idea that millions of Americans have a fully formed and coherent understanding of the concept, never thinking about how to implement socialism, is absurd. Asking people whether they like socialism or capitalism is a question of “vibes” and little else.

Of course, socialists have a right to be happy about improving the web. But the best way to confuse Americans about socialism is to put socialists in power – which is why I’m not too worried about America being a socialist country.

X: @JonahDispatch