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Today's Top Stories From the Breitbart News DeskIt would be forgivable if you were under the impression that the country had lurched to the left on economics based merely on the rise of socialists and their fellow-travelers in the Democratic Party. Many of us have in our heads a model of political parties in which they pursue agendas in hopes of appealing to voters to win power. So if the Democrats are increasingly socialist and pursuing huge expansions in the role of government, that looks like evidence of a political shift. But that's not what Gallup's most recent survey suggests. Gallup has been conducting a survey asking Americans if they have favorable views of six terms: small business, free enterprise, capitalism, socialism, big business, and the federal government. The poll indicates very favorable ratings for small businesses and free enterprise, much as it has for the past decade. Socialism wins approval from just 38 percent of Americans and capitalism garners a 60 percent approval rating, both largely unchanged over the past decade. Even more interesting is what has changed. Just 38 percent of Americans say they have positive feelings about the federal government, down from 52 percent a decade ago. That puts the federal government on par with socialism. Positive feelings about big business are also on the decline. Back in 2012, nearly 60 percent of Americans said they approved of big business. Now just 46 percent do. This has been driven by a change of heart among Republicans. In 2021, 56 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents had a positive opinion of big business, down from 72 percent in 2019. That huge slide in Republican support has not been accompanied by any change on the heart of Democrats, only 36 percent of whom say they have positive feelings about big business. This is evidence of the growing populism among conservatives and very clearly a reaction to the rise of Woke Capitalism and corporate support for radical causes like Black Lives Matter in the wake of last year's riots and protests. So why have the Democrats and corporate America lurched to the left if that is alienating the public? Beneath the headline numbers, we can see the reason. Democrats' opinions of socialism have become much more positive over the years, moving from 53 in 2010 and 2012 to over 65 percent now. Meanwhile, Republican views have become slightly more negative on socialism (they were already very negative, so there wasn't really much more they could move). And the meaning of socialism is changing. Democrats no longer think of it in the classical definition of state ownership of the means of production. Instead, they are most likely to think of socialism in terms of equality and government provision of benefits and services. So although America is not becoming more socialist-leaning, the Democrats are. – Alex Marlow & John Carney |
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