Good News for Bernie Sanders? Poll Shows 47% of Americans Would Vote for a Socialist [View all]

[99th_Monkey]

BERNIE

Good News for Bernie Sanders? Poll Shows 47% of Americans Would Vote for a Socialist
A sizeable chunk of Americans say they’d consider voting to send a socialist to the Oval Office.
BY MARC DAALDER * JUNE 24, 2015 * In These Times

A new Gallup poll shows that 47 percent of Americans would consider voting for a socialist candidate. Gallup has been polling Americans on their voting preferences for candidates of different backgrounds since 1937, but this year was the first time they inquired about socialism.

When broken down on party lines, a socialist candidate would earn the consideration of 59 percent of Democrats, 49 percent of Independents, and only 26 percent of Republicans. Overall, socialism charted the lowest of all the backgrounds referenced in the poll. Atheist and Muslim candidates ranked second- and third-lowest among the American populace, at 58 and 60 percent respectively.

This poll comes less than two months after Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy, becoming the first self-described socialist (with at least a decent chance of winning) to do so in more than a decade.

Advocates for Sanders argue that the Gallup poll is misleading for a number of reasons. While Americans may disapprove of a socialist candidate, they strongly support policies that Sanders stands for. Fifty-two percent support a redistribution of wealth through heavily taxing the rich, for example—the highest number that Gallup has seen since first asking that question in 1940. And 63 percent of Americans believe that the current distribution of wealth in the US is unfair.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18106/americans-socialism-bernie-sanders