A central message of the Republican midterm push is that Democrats are embracing socialism, or worse, communism. Since Oct. 1, that warning has featured in more than 880 episodes of conservative podcasts, while more than $70 million has gone toward television ads driving that message home. But for all of that push, it raises a simple question Republicans may need to take more seriously: Does the label scare Americans anymore?
There is reason to believe it doesn’t, or at least not enough to outweigh their frustration with the cost of living.
As The Wall Street Journal points out, many midterm races, where Republicans have accused their opponents of being a socialist, remains neck and neck despite the barrage of warnings. Voters may not recoil from the socialist label the way a generation shaped by the Cold War once did. Some may even be more willing to embrace candidates who wear it if they believe those candidates can make everyday life more affordable.
And the broader shift is backed by a wealth of data. According to a September Gallup poll, a record 45 percent of Americans view socialism favorably, including an astonishing 45 percent of independents. Among younger Americans, views of the failed economic model are favorable by a margin of 57 to 43 percent.
Those numbers alone may not convince skeptics that socialism is gaining ground. But the warning becomes harder to dismiss when Americans are asked about specific policies.
Well over two-thirds support price controls on prescription drugs and a 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates. Americans also overwhelmingly favor rent control and caps on child care costs. More than 60 percent support raising taxes on the wealthy to fund Social Security, a federal billionaire tax, Medicare for All, and federal ownership stakes in private companies. More than half favor a $20 minimum wage and a national pied-à-terre tax.
And if the polling is not enough to give Republicans pause, perhaps the warnings from some of their own strategists should:
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“Attacks that would normally be killshots get a shrug by voters,” Jason Cabel Roe, the strategist for Tom Barrett’s campaign, told the Wall Street Journal. “The millennials and Gen Z voters are taught that socialism is just a different form of governing. They don’t see it as a pejorative.”
“For most voters, the suggestion that some Democratic candidates are actual communists is harder to believe,” Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman from Miami, said.
Why does the label no longer inspire the fear it once did? According to The Wall Street Journal, one reason may be that Republicans spent decades branding figures including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as socialists. In other words, the term became so overused that it lost its potency, much as repeated comparisons of President Trump to Hitler and sweeping accusations of racism against Republicans did throughout the late 2010s.
Or the explanation may be simpler: When voters’ overriding concern is the cost of living, candidates promising to bring prices down through sweeping government intervention simply sound like a way out. More taxes on the wealthy, more government programs, more price controls.
And both parties have helped to cultivate the populist thinking behind them: that one person’s prosperity comes at another’s expense, that wealth is evidence of exploitation, and that high prices are principally a matter of greed. They differ over whom to blame and where to intervene, but Republicans cannot keep feeding that worldview and expect the word “socialism” to frighten voters away like it once did.
If Republicans truly saw socialism’s economics as a rising threat, you would expect them to reembrace the free market. But they haven’t. That suggestion alone will provoke objections from Republicans convinced the “free market” has failed Americans over the past quarter-century. Too many can justify government intervention, and policies they would otherwise call socialist, as long as someone on the Right is in charge.
Free markets have taken a back seat in American politics. Until that changes, expect socialism, its policies, and the Democratic Socialists of America to keep gaining ground. The thinking behind socialism already pervades both parties, whether they acknowledge it or not. Without a clear free-market alternative, Americans are being offered only one direction. And you can expect Americans to keep heading down that path as long as it is the only one they are offered.
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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