Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

On Thursday Rasmussen came out with a poll showing that “Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.” It is difficult to say much about this poll as it does not define the terms. Confusing matters even more, last December a survey showed that 70% of Americans prefer a free-market economy.

I see these surveys as largely being a test of reaction to words such as capitalism and socialism as opposed to having much meaning with regards to what type of economic system Americans really prefer. There may be some meaning to the fact that there is not a more negative view of socialism.

While Obama is no socialist the right has repeatedly been making such claims. This was a common attack during the presidential campaign. The right received further fuel for such bogus attacks from the bail out plans (putting aside the fact that this began during Bush’s term).

I’ve often mocked the attacks on Obama for being a socialist because the attacks are so blatantly untrue. This turned out even worse than expected for the right. With the policies of the right being so unpopular and with Obama’s tremendous popularity, many Americans see any label attacked to Obama as favorable. Claiming that Obama is a socialist wound up making socialism a more favorable-sounding word as opposed to tarnishing Obama’s reputation.

As an opponent of socialism I have mixed feelings on this poll. Socialism, like Republican economic policies, is based upon placing ideology over reality and leads to disaster. Socialism is a word which deserves a low popularity, and should not be competitive with capitalism in such polls. On the other hand, after seeing the McCarthyist tactics of the right there is a certain satisfaction in seeing false attacks on Obama as being a socialist backfire so badly against them. Perhaps this will dissuade conservatives from making such untrue claims.

Update: The New York Times front page at present has an item from The Opininator which summarizes blog reaction on this poll in a prominent position. I note that some bloggers interpreted the poll in a similar manner. For example, Steve Benen wrote:

In terms of interpreting these results, the numbers certainly aren’t what I expected, and it’s hard to know why respondents answered as they did. Perhaps “capitalism” lost some of its appeal when our economy collapsed. Maybe a lot of people heard the media connect Obama and “socialism,” and since they like the president, they figure socialism can’t be that bad. In a similar vein, if right-wing blowhards like Limbaugh keep screaming that socialism is manifestly evil, there may be some who assume the economic model must have merit.

Mark Thompson wrote:

When you falsely complain that every single thing your opponents try to do is socialism and absurdly hold your bloviating, unpopular selves up as bastions of capitalism, you probably shouldn’t be surprised when people start thinking socialism doesn’t look so bad, and capitalism doesn’t look so good.  So suggests, in part, Chris Good.  Let the record reflect that I predicted this, in full, on November 5, 2008.   Heckuva job guys, heckuva job.

Mark is correct that connecting capitalism with Republican polices doesn’t do it any favors. As I’ve previously quoted libertarian Will Wilkinson as writing, “the great success of the GOP over the last eight years has been to destroy the reputation of free markets and limited government by deploying its rhetoric and then doing the opposite.”