Americans can’t seem to get on the same page when it comes to what defines socialism even though new polling shows the movement’s favorability is at an all-time high.
Whether far-left factions are able to rally around the label could come down to understand its principles.
Fox News Digital took to the streets of a Maryland liberal hotspot, Takoma Park, for its annual street festival to talk with attendees about their definitions of socialism and how far they would be willing to go to embrace its ideals.
“The fact is that there’s noâ¦one answer,” Nina Gilden Seavey said when asked to define socialism.
“Just the idea of like, you’ve been paying all these things to set up these programs and then you’re actually giving them to the people,” Jaw Blake said describing his view of the political movement. “It’s not a special group that gets to have them, it’s just available.”
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Jenny Sniderman had a more direct answer, claiming that “public libraries, the police department, the fire department, all our public services, utilities,” are all part of what makes up socialism.
A September Gallup poll found that 43% of Americans have a positive image of socialism â the highest level since the polling organization began tracking the question in 2010.
But the survey asks respondents their image of socialism without providing a definition of the ideology or asking whether they would actually support adopting it in the U.S.
The same festival-goers were pressed on socialism as an economic system, questioning their favorability of collective ownership. They shared some skepticism when Fox News Digital asked whether they would personally surrender their private property to government or collective control.
“Do I want to give up my private property? Of course I don’t want to give up my private property,” Sniderman said. “Are they going to reimburse me fairly? That would be helpful in making my choice.”
“I don’t know that I would necessarily love it,” Blake said. “But I mean, if it was something that was beneficial, I’d at least consider it.”
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“Nobody wants what they have to be taken away from them,” he continued. “But there is something to be said aboutâ¦you can set up things so that they’re available for everybody.”
“I think the government is not the greatest stewardâ¦of assets,” Seavey said. “It’s not to say that capitalism is somehow without flaw, but the fact is that there is an idealism that can come from thinking, ‘Oh, if we had some more centrality, ifâ¦there was some kind of uber organization in charge of reallocation.'”
Documentary filmmaker and self-described historian Seavey also questioned the idea of government control over private assets, but argued that the growing democratic socialist movement in the U.S. should not be confused with traditional socialism.
“This is not socialism. This is democratic socialism. It’s different. The
