Capitalism: Big Surprises in Recent Polls

[Echo In Light]

Capitalism: Big Surprises in Recent Polls
by Charles Derber



According to the conventional wisdom, the US is a center-Right country. But a new poll by Pew casts doubt on that idea. It shows widespread skepticism about capitalism and hints that support for socialist alternatives is emerging as a majoritarian force in America’s new generation.

Carried out in late April and published May 4, 2010, the Pew poll, arguably by the most respected polling company in the country, asked over 1500 randomly selected Americans to describe their reactions to terms such as “capitalism,” “socialism,” “progressive,” “libertarian” and “militia.” The most striking findings concern “capitalism” and “socialism.” We cannot be sure what people mean by these terms, so the results have to be interpreted cautiously and in the context of more specific attitudes on concrete issues, as discussed later.

Pew summarizes the results in its poll title: “Socialism not so negative; capitalism not so positive.” This turns out to be an understatement of the drama in some of the underlying data.

Yes, “capitalism” is still viewed positively by a majority of Americans. But it is just by a bare majority. Only 52% of all Americans react positively. Thirty-seven percent say they have a negative reaction and the rest aren’t sure.

A year ago, a Rasmussen poll found similar reactions. Then, only 53% of Americans described capitalism as “superior” to socialism.

Meanwhile, 29% in the Pew poll describe “socialism” as positive. This positive percent soars much higher when you look at key sub-groups, as discussed shortly. A 2010 Gallup poll found 37% of all Americans preferring socialism as “superior” to capitalism.

Keep in mind these findings reflect an overview of the public mind when Right wing views seem at a high point – with the Tea Party often cast as a barometer of American public opinion. The polls in this era do not suggest a socialist country, but not a capitalist-loving one either. This is not a “Center-Right” America but a populace where almost 50% are deeply ambivalent or clearly opposed to capitalism. Republicans and the Tea Party would likely call that a Communist country.

The story gets more interesting when you look at two vital sub-groups. One is young people, the “millennial generation” currently between 18 and 30. In the Pew poll, just 43% of Americans under 30 describe “capitalism” as positive. Even more striking, the same percentage, 43%, describes “socialism” as positive. In other words, the new generation is equally divided between capitalism and socialism.

*edit* to re-post working link:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/18-3

[marmar]

1. Maybe reality is setting in......

As my Howard Zinn sig line quote suggests.

[uponit7771]

2. People don't feel "trickled" down on after 30yrs

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. "majoritarian"? is that a real word?

In any case, 29-37% is not a "majoritarian" quantity; I'd be interested to know past poll results from the Bush era, Clinton, Reagan and Cold War views. Glad to see the youngsters having a more positive view of socialism, despite the distorting propaganda on the MSM.

[Echo In Light]

4. "Majoritarian"

is a traditional political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, social class or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society. This traditional view has come under growing criticism and democracies have increasingly included constraints in what the parliamentary majority can do, in order to protect citizens' fundamental rights.<1>

This should not be confused with the concept of a majoritarian electoral system, which is a simple electoral system which usually gives a majority of seats to the party with a plurality of votes. A parliament elected by this method may be called a majoritarian parliament (e.g. the British parliament).

Under a democratic majoritarian political structure the majority would not exclude any minority from future participation in the democratic process. Majoritarianism is sometimes pejoratively called ochlocracy (commonly stated as mob rule) or tyranny of the majority by its opponents. Majoritarianism is often referred to as majority rule, but which may be referring to a majority class ruling over a minority class, while not referring to the decision process called majority rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majoritarianism

[pnorman]

5. I had trouble with the link. Try this one:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/18-3

[Echo In Light]

6. Dunno why it's doing that? Thanks for the heads-up - edited above

[RainDog]

7. iow, Americans view social democracy, as practiced by other western democracies, as favorable

A candidate that wants to develop loyal voters among those voting for the first time would be smart to recognize and empower this vote.

if democrats, however, want to alienate the emerging voter - they should continue to pander to Wall Street, Insurance cos and Republicans.

Tony Judt wrote about The Emerging Democratic Majority a few years ago. Richard Florida wrote about the community aspect of this widely-held progressive view as well.

[Echo In Light]

8. If young voters are leftward leaning, obviously the party NEEDS to "alienate the emerging voter."

[bvar22]

9. The results are even WAY more "Leftish" if you throw away the loaded buzzwords,

and poll people on the issues.

"America is a Center-Right Country" is pure BULLSHIT manufactured by the Ownership Class and their puppet politicians.

NAFTA, "Free Trade", and the Giant "Invisible Hand of the Free Market"..ALL outright LIES marketed to a gullible America over the television by BOTH Political Parties.

In recent polls (2005!) by the Pew Research Group, the Opinion Research Corporation, the Wall Street Journal, and CBS News, the American majority has made clear how it feels. Look at how the majority feels about some of the issues that you'd think would be gospel to a real Democratic Party:

1. 65 percent (of ALL Americans, Democrats AND Republicans) say the government should guarantee health insurance for everyone -- even if it means raising taxes.

2. 86 percent favor raising the minimum wage (including 79 percent of selfdescribed "social conservatives").

3. 60 percent favor repealing either all of Bush's tax cuts or at least those cuts that went to the rich.

4. 66 percent would reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

5. 77 percent believe the country should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

6. 87 percent think big oil corporations are gouging consumers, and 80 percent (including 76 percent of Republicans) would support a windfall profits tax on the oil giants if the revenues went for more research on alternative fuels.

7. 69 percent agree that corporate offshoring of jobs is bad for the U.S. economy (78 percent of "disaffected" voters think this), and only 22% believe offshoring is good because "it keeps costs down."

http://alternet.org/story/29788/

Heres a GOOD One:
92% of ALL Americans support TRANSPARENT, VERIFIABLE elections!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x446445

THIS is a WINNING ISSUE for EITHER Political Party, and you would think it would be a FRONT BURNER ISSUE with the Democratic Party....but NO. Not a PEEP.
I wonder why.
.
.
.
.
(Both Political Parties have agreed that elections are too important to be left up to The People, and in a spirit of "bi-partisanship" have agreed to share....as long as neither Party upsets the flow of money to the top 1%.)

[Echo In Light]

10. Good points

[leftstreet]

11. +1

[Starry Messenger]

12. +2

[Duer 157099]

13. And in related new, the Emperor has no clothes

"According to the conventional wisdom, the US is a center-Right country."

I call bullshit on that one quote alone. Unless they mean, "according to the corporate-media's determination of what conventional wisdom should be."

I'm so tired of "them" telling us what "we" think.

Bastards

[Echo In Light]

14. Jon Stewart did a good bit last night re What The American People Want

... per vested interests ;)

[Echo In Light]

15. Bump

[Echo In Light]

16. Bump

[Echo In Light]

17. Bump

[jimlup]

18. And this despite relentless propaganda to the contrary

I've felt for a long time that most people are basically in favor of left principles. They just don't know it. One hopes that if people are able to communicate these ideas, despite the relentless propaganda otherwise, we might finally start to make some progress on actually shifting policy.

[Echo In Light]

21. +1

[amborin]

19. K&R

[maryf]

20. K&Rnt

[sea four]

22. I'm from this milllenial generation, 21 years old...

and it's extremely obvious to me that capitalism has run amok and is fucking things up enormously. The democrats need to start acknowledging and dealing with that fact. People will only tolerate so much abuse from their feudal lords friendly local megacorporations before they say ENOUGH. If the democrats aren't willing to see that and provide solutions, then they will be replaced. We supposedly live in a democracy. But where are all the leftist politicians who should be representing this 37%? Not in the democratic party, that's for sure. That's got to change. And I have a feeling it will be.

You can feel the dissatisfaction and anger in our politics right now. People are sick of this stupid circus in DC. Sick of the lying, corrupt, two-faced politicians. Hurting because of the recession which the banker oligarchs caused. Just sick of all the bullshit and they want it to end. It's going to. The US goes though these changes periodically. The last time it switched was when Reagan was elected. It went to the right then. It's going the other way this time. You can tell people want it, because they voted for Mr. Change Obama. But he doesn't seem to understand this yet. He's governing like it's still the 90s. Like he still has to triangulate to survive. Most democrats are. They will wake up eventually. I hope.

They might not, because they are reliant on corporate contributions to win elections. Do you think businesses donate out of the goodness of their heart? Because they have a sense of civic duty? No way. They donate because they want something in return. It's legalized bribery, basically. If the democrats can't break their addiction to campaign cash, and they try to continue as usual... it will turn out badly, I think. You can't just ignore this kind of anger. It has to be dealt with otherwise it will manifest in dangerous ways. The tea party is a good example. Those people are mad about losing their jobs and houses and whatnot, but are confused about why. They think it's big government, socialism, whatever. It's actually the opposite, the problem is capitalism, and by missing the problem, they miss the solutions. The democrats and the left need to give people real solutions, so people won't fall for the tricks of the republicans...

[calimary]

23. Hey sea four! Welcome to DU!

My daughter will be 21 in a few months. She'd agree with you. I certainly do, myself.

Besides - I think we humans are born and built to lean liberal. After all, the human heart hangs to the LEFT.

[Binka]

24. Wow! You Go Guy!!

Welcome to DU. :thumbsup: