Democrats are mainstreaming socialism. As recent polling shows, socialism is already embedded in their party’s mainstream.
But by bowing to the will of their majority, the Democratic Party threatens to bring socialism into America’s mainstream via the two-party system.
Those who thought socialists running on Democratic tickets were anomalies should think again. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, Democrats’ nominee for New York City mayor, and Omar Fateh, the once–disputed but now certain Democratic nominee for Minneapolis mayor, are part of a far bigger trend in the Democratic Party.
An early September Gallup poll on Americans’ perception of capitalism and socialism shows the latter is now heavily preferred by Democrats. In 2010, 50 percent of Democrats viewed socialism favorably; today, 66 percent do.
In just 15 years, the percentage of Democrats viewing socialism favorably has gone from half to almost two-thirds. In contrast, over the same period, the percentage of Democrats who at least view capitalism “favorably” has fallen from a bare majority of 51 percent to just 42 percent.
Today’s poll results remove any ambiguity about a May 2019 Gallup poll that found 74 percent of Democrats would support a socialist for president as their party’s nominee.
Taken six years ago and on the threshold of the 2020 presidential election, there could have been an assumption that politics were influencing the poll results. After all, self-described Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had received strong support in 2016’s Democratic primaries and was seeking the Democratic nomination again in 2020. Further, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), another Democratic socialist, had become a party star after her upstart House seat win in 2018.
So, perhaps Democrats’ acceptance of a socialist nominee was a combination of politicians’ personal appeal (Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez) and party loyalty — that is, willingness to support the party at all costs, updating the old standard of “yellow dog Democrat” to “red dog Democrat.”
Today’s poll results on socialism itself, not simply socialists, brush aside doubts about how Democrats feel and where their preferences lie in politics and economics.
As these and other polls show, Democrats are moving left: In 2023, a Gallup poll showed liberals at a new high of 54 percent within the Democratic party.
They are doing so in large numbers. And they are doing so quickly: In 2000, only 28 percent of Democrats identified as liberals. In just a generation, that percentage has nearly doubled.
Further, they are moving toward what is historically an extreme position in American politics when it comes to socialism. The U.S. has been noteworthy throughout history for its lack of a significant socialist presence in its politics. Wener Sombart famously entitled his early 20th century book “Why is there no Socialism in the United States?”
Yes, Eugene Debs ran as a socialist for president multiple times, but he received only tiny percentages of the popular vote and no electoral votes. Significantly, Debs also ran as a third-party candidate.
Decades ago, political scientist Maurice Duverger propounded what is now known as “Duverger’s Law” — two-party systems will prevail where winner-take-all (i.e., plurality voting) elections occur.
Of course, this describes American voting. In our two-party system, to be a third-party is to be on the outside looking in. The last third-party candidate to win the presidency was Lincoln in 1860.
And therein lies the added significance of Democrats’ move toward acceptance of socialism. Socialism’s headway within the Democratic Party also means it gains headway within America’s two-party system for the first time.
Rather than aspire to be an independent third party, as socialists repeatedly and vainly tried to do during the 20th century, they now have their best chance at breaking into America’s historic two-party system — by coming in the back door through one of the two existing parties.
Far from flukes, Mamdani and Fateh — and Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, for that matter — are riding the larger wave beneath them that is rolling and rising through the Democratic Party.
Elected Democrats like Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Sen, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul are increasingly accepting Mamdani and Fateh because, even absent their inclination, they have no choice: This is where two-thirds of their party is.
However, its rise within one of America’s two storied, major parties is also making socialism increasingly accessible, and thereby acceptable, in America as well.
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, “Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left.” He has more than three decades’ experience representing a Fortune 20 company and working in Congress, the Department of the Treasury and the White House Office of Management and Budget.
