{"id":3946,"date":"2026-06-25T21:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3946"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:07:08","slug":"how-open-are-americans-to-socialism-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3946","title":{"rendered":"How open are Americans to socialism, after all?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Democratic socialists might be having their best year ever.\n <\/p>\n

\n After they took over the mayoralties of New York and Seattle on January 1, they won a congressional primary in Philadelphia last month. A couple weeks ago, their candidate, Nithya Raman, won one of two competitive spots for the Los Angeles mayoral general election, facing incumbent Karen Bass. They won the primary for mayor of Washington, DC, last week. And now they\u2019ve won a pair of high-profile primaries in New York City, including Darializa Avila Chevalier\u2019s upset of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.\n <\/p>

Read more Bad cybersecurity by Secret Service agents put US officials at risk, inspector general says<\/a><\/p>\n

\n There is a caveat when considering how ascendant the democratic socialists are: Their victories are largely relegated to big, deep-blue cities, especially New York City. But it\u2019s clear they\u2019re a growing force to be reckoned with in American politics.\n <\/p>\n

\n That has some Republicans licking their chops \u2014 and some centrist Democrats rather anxious.\n <\/p>\n

\n Not that long ago, the s-word was clearly a label Democrats wanted to avoid. But Americans and especially Democrats have warmed to the concept of socialism in recent years.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2010, a Gallup poll showed 50% of Democrats had a favorable view of socialism. As of last year, before the victories of now-New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and now-Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, that number had risen to 66%.\n <\/p>\n

\n The data also suggests the increase in support for socialism could be related to declining faith in capitalism \u2014 which is an issue not just with Democrats, but also the political middle.\n <\/p>\n

\n In fact, Democrats last year had a significantly more favorable view of socialism (66%) than capitalism (42%).\n <\/p>\n

\n As recently as 2012, those were reversed.\n <\/p>\n

\n The same Gallup poll showed favorable views of \u201cbig business\u201d declined from 58% in 2012 to 37% in 2025.\n <\/p>\n

\n Similarly, a Fox News poll in March showed nearly half of registered voters (49%) described capitalism as working \u201cnot very\u201d well or \u201cnot at all\u201d well.\n <\/p>\n

\n That view was especially popular among Democrats (72%), but it was also embraced by most independents (60%).\n <\/p>\n

\n The same survey showed 38% of registered voters said it would be a \u201cgood thing\u201d if the United States moved away from capitalism and more toward socialism.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s not close to a majority \u2014 but it\u2019s up from 18% in 2010. And that 38% is a really sizable chunk of voters, sizable enough that it shouldn\u2019t be too surprising that Democratic primary voters, in particular, would at least be open to democratic socialist candidates.\n <\/p>\n

\n But just because Democrats are open to it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good for their party brand.\n <\/p>

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\n President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have spent years attaching the national Democratic Party to socialism, after all. And there is evidence that could help them.\n <\/p>\n

\n A recent Marquette Law School poll tested Americans\u2019 views of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization. While Democrats viewed it favorably by a 42%-17% margin, its overall numbers were poor: 21% favorable to 48% unfavorable.\n <\/p>\n

\n But there\u2019s a catch. Given those numbers, one might assume that the most prominent democratic socialists in US politics would be quite unpopular.\n <\/p>\n

\n Wrong.\n <\/p>\n

\n In fact, the two best-known democratic socialists are probably Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. And a Gallup poll last summer showed they were actually more popular than every other major US political figure tested, including Trump, top members of his Cabinet, former President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Sanders was the most popular US political figure tested.\n <\/p>\n

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\"Pennsylvania<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nPennsylvania State Rep. Chris Rabb and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York share the stage during a Rabb for Congress rally on May 15 in Philadelphia.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n The picture was similar in the Marquette Law School survey that showed the DSA\u2019s general unpopularity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Which points us to perhaps the biggest lesson here: Socialism and democratic socialism are unpopular, yes, but the labels don\u2019t sully all who are associated with them. Much depends on how they\u2019re packaged and other attributes of the candidate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sanders has been a pretty popular figure in US politics for some time now. And even Ocasio-Cortez, while a lightning rod for the right, has a proven ability to expand her appeal and avoid being too easily caricatured as an extremist.\n <\/p>\n

\n That said, others who come on to the scene might not be so adept at avoiding creating problems for their party. Just look at the paper trail left by Avila Chevalier, for example, to get a taste for how the ascendance of the democratic socialists could pose problems for Democrats more broadly.\n <\/p>\n

\n In addition to her history of extreme statements in now-deleted social media posts, Avila Chevalier also attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square on October 8, 2023, the day after a massive Hamas terror attack in Israel. (That highlights another tough problem for Democrats, as their primaries have advanced a series of strongly anti-Israel candidates who could test the tolerance of the broader electorate.)\n <\/p>\n

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\"New<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n
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\nNew York Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrates with Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier and organizer Carmen Rojas, during an election night watch party in New York, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Seth Wenig\/AP<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n It also remains to be seen how many other democratic socialists might win primaries in the coming weeks in areas of the country where their movement hasn\u2019t gained as much of a foothold.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Ocasio-Cortez has brushed off concerns that those candidates would drag down other Democrats.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s deja vu all over again. There was so much fear around that when I was elected, and none of it bore out to be true,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Thursday. \u201cVoters vote for what is happening in their community and what\u2019s on their ballot.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more Rubio\u2019s spin on the Iran MOU sounds different from Trump and Vance<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

CNN\u2019s Alison Main contributed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic socialists might be having their best year ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nHow open are Americans to socialism, after all? - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How open are Americans to socialism, after all? - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democratic socialists might be having their best year ever.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T21:07:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1e0e2ce4bc57ec1d6b78fc1bd03e47b9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"513\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"How open are Americans to socialism, after all?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T21:07:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946\"},\"wordCount\":1001,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/9eebc07adbc8f04e3193ac293591b7c3.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=3946\",\"name\":\"How open are Americans to socialism, after all? 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