For Bernie Sanders Iowa campaign, Socialism is a feature not a bug
Among Dems likely to vote, more identify as Socialist than Capitalist.
With final Des Moines Register polling showing Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton essentially even, consider this:
A little-noticed data point in the new Selzer & Co. Iowa poll, in fact, shows that 43 percent of likely [Democratic] voters in the Feb. 1 caucuses say they would use the word “socialist” to describe themselves.
And to be very clear, this question was not whether they would vote for a socialist or sympathize with socialism; it’s whether they consider themselvessocialist.
The 43 percent of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers who self-identify as socialist is actually more than the number who identify themselves as capitalist — 38 percent.
That’s right. More likely Democratic voters self-identify as Socialist than Capitalist.
Here is the full chart:
Daily Kos is practically giddy:
The poll also found that supporters of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders are almost twice as likely to consider themselves socialist compared to supporters of Sec. Hillary Clinton.
DMR poll: 68% of Iowa Dem caucusgoers ok with a Democratic socialist as president.
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 30, 2016
Maybe Aleister was right to suggest this version of Bernie’s America ad:
Bernie For Glorious Leader from Aleister on Vimeo.
What flies in the Iowa Demcratic electorate, however, may not fly nationally, where being a Socialist is the least favorable attribute in a candidate, according to a June 2015 Gallup poll:
Based on that Gallup polling, Bernie Sanders would have a better chance if he were a gay Muslim Hispanic woman, than a socialist. (I understand, the polling data doesn’t work that way, but play along with me here.)
I hope Bernie wins the nomination. Oh boy, do I hope he wins.
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In other news, half the republicans identify as capitalists while they are actually socialists…
A democratic economic system is unnerving to people who seek to form monopolies of capital and control, and the latter strains to coexist with the former without the right principles.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The social compact cannot be reconciled with chauvinist movements, congruence constructs, class diversity schemes, excessive immigration, anti-native policies, and selective-child doctrine.
Reality check: how many people on the street yammered to Howard Stern that they thought Palin was a great choice as Obama’s running mate?
How many people actually know what “capitalist” versus “socialist” is. The word “capitalist” is regularly dissed in the MSM. And “socialist” sounds a lot like “sociable”.
A whole bunch also think they’re “optimists” and another set are neither “politically correct” not “not politically correct”.
There are an awful lot of “true believers” too, who apparently didn’t realize that this phrase doesn’t mean “believer” and is an insult.
P.S. When I was in high school, admittedly a very long time ago, we were taught that Britain — which seemed to be a very nice country — had a partially “socialist” system, but “communism” was bad. Also that no country is absolutely pure capitalism. because there are regulations, utilities owned or controlled by the government, etc., and that there’s a range of “socialism”.
Government-paid health care aside, Bernie Sanders’ “socialism” bears a far closer resemblance to “communism”, which, I note, is not on that list.
Perhaps we ought to start calling him a “communist socialist” so that it’s a little clearer to folks.
P.P.S. This was a fairly lengthy telephone interview. It appears that fewer than 2/3 of the @ 3400 “randomly selected active voters” were willing to respond, yet there was a convenient approximate 1/2 division between Republican and Democrat respondees. Who even knows if the words were read off or heard correctly (I’m guessing not, given how many “true believers” they came up with._
Give me your children, and I’ll give you the future…
We gave our children to a collective group of corrupt, infantile leftists. The future is now, and it’s called things like ‘Obama,’ and ‘Bernie.’ What a lost couple of generations.
Exactly right. And, sadly, our institutions are solidly leftist-and getting more so. We have dug ourselves a very deep hole; I hate to think what it might take to truly change things.
It’s often said that “Americans are ideologically conservative, but operationally liberal.”
In some ways I agree, and in some ways I disagree.
But I must say, living on the posh Westside of Los Angeles in the belly of the beast of Hollywood progressivism, as I’ve observed how the financially successful, (often extremely wealthy), progressive parents of our kids’ friends raise their children and live their lives:
“Wealthy American progressives are ideologically liberal, but operationally conservative.”
“Well, Doctor [James McHenry], what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” — Benjamin Franklin
So, 4% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats in this study are bad at math and didn’t pass Econ 101. Sounds about right.
Simple fact of the matter is, Capitalism means theft. 1%ers screw and steal from the 99%. You who support Capitalism should be shipped off to exploit each other to death, whilst Humanity gets on with progress.
ProTip: Don’t use rhetoric like “simple fact” when you don’t have any to offer, don’t mistake your fantasies for reality, and don’t attempt to lecture on a topic when it appears you don’t understand the first thing about it and everything you “know” about it is vicious propaganda. I have engaged in capitalism all my life but have never stolen from anyone, am I doing it wrong?
It’s ironic that you claim to desire “progress” while advocating forcibly rounding people up and exiling them for the “crime” of favoring the voluntary exchange of goods and services and disfavoring the brutal kinds of actual theft that are intrinsic to socialism and communism.
This is your brain on leftism.
Takedown…complete.
Ahhh “progress”. What a wonderful word to describe the forced choices of a government philosophy where free choice is anathema.
Why am I thinking Chemgeek:
…detests private monopolies because of power, wealth and influence. Forgets government is largest monopoly of power, wealth and influence.
…hates capitalism because of its free choices, loves Obamacare because it’s mandatory for all.
…hates school vouchers and free choice they define, believes all in society must pay for public school indoctrination of every child.
…hates capitalism because of exploitation and concentration of wealth. Loves that he can voluntarily buy new ecosystems of smartphones/gadgets every couple of years (only possible with exploitation and slave wages of foreign workers), and thinks hi-tech ecosystems like Apple (which define capitalism and concentrations of wealth) are “cool”.
The fancy lure of socialism is security. Fish swim toward it and then they are hooked. They are reeled up out of the water and put in the boat for consumption. They are not thrown back in the water to live another day.
Socialists like Bernie believe they can reinvent socialism to make it work. It can’t be remade to work because it is pure demand side economics
Once you receive all your ‘free stuff’ you are stuck with a huge credit card bill to pay. The debt maybe once or twice removed but it is very real.
Socialism takes aspirations and turns them into exasperations.
Benie’s going to fizzle out after New Hampshire, unless the media decides to drag him over the finish line. (Or Hillary starts appearing sickly or gets indicted).
Democrats vote tribally. There are only 4 states where white people are a majority of Democrat voters. Three of those 4 states are Iowa, New Hampshire, and Bernie’s Vermont.
Beanies messaging has no appeal outside of white liberals. The label socialism & the supermajority white ad are things that only appeal to white democrats. Bernie’s going to get blown out in 15% white Lousiana, for example.
“I hope Bernie wins the nomination. Oh boy, do I hope he wins.”
I tend to agree with this. Unfortunately, the cynical part of me is remembering similar discussions taking place around
eight years ago.
Something tells me liberals get confused when there’s only 2 restroom’s to choose from !
Bernie is a joke of a man; he actually mirrors Karl Marx quite well.
http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/bernie-sanders-the-bum-who-wants-your-money/