Is Socialism Really Gaining Steam, or Are Socialists Just Gaming the System Better?

One of the advantages of this job is that I sometimes get to meet, at least virtually, more interesting people than I normally would in a 9-5 job. 

Scott Rasmussen is one of those. He and I connected after I wrote about the difficulties of polling in today’s environment, and we have been corresponding on and off ever since. 

Every once in a while, he sends me interesting tidbits from his work at the Napolitan Institute, where he combines his polling expertise from his time as President of Rasmussen Reports (which he no longer runs) with a long-term project to revive the spirit of America as we knew it. 

So I was interested to see his take on the rise of socialism in the Democratic Party after he sent me a link to this article he wrote for Lyceum. 

🚨The Myth of Socialism’s Rise

✅”Why do smart people who follow the news closely believe something that, if produced by an AI bot, would be considered a hallucination?” https://t.co/oIOsu31vgZ

— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) July 23, 2026

To put it bluntly, his take, based on the data he has collected, is that socialism is no more popular with the public now than it was before the DSA candidates began having electoral success. 

If you follow political news, rising support for socialism is all the rage. Some on the political left cheer it, while other left-leaning pundits fear it will drag down Democrats in November. On the right, the supposed rise of socialism is seen as a harbinger of America’s doom—or of the extremism of Democrats.

However, in the real world, there is no rise in support for socialism.

The most recent Napolitan News survey found that 31% of voters nationwide have a favorable opinion of the term. We’ve gotten pretty much the same result in survey after survey over the past decade. Every time we’ve asked, the percentage with a favorable opinion of socialism has remained between 30% and 35%.

So, if the numbers are stable, why does the political world believe support for an un-American ideology is growing? Why do smart people who follow the news closely believe something that, if produced by an AI bot, would be considered a hallucination?

The root cause of this problem is that we live in a 10-10-80 nation. Ten percent of the country on the political left is engaged in a bitter war with 10% on the political right. Both sides believe that only their agenda can save the nation from the evil of the other 10 percent. 

You know which 10% I am part of, I suppose, although I do try to keep my eye on what the 80% think. 

So why do so many of us look at the election results we have seen in recent years and worry that socialism is on the rise? 

Simple, actually. The results we are looking at come from relatively low-turnout elections in deep Blue districts where the ability to organize and turn out the votes of relatively few people can make all the difference in the world. A small percentage of people can have an outsized influence because elections do not reflect public opinion; they reflect the opinions of those who bother to show up. 

The 80 percenters, on the other hand, instinctively recognize that there’s more to life than politics, and they hate the toxic nature of 21st-century politics. In fact, they live their lives with the understanding that positive change in America almost always begins outside politics.

What does this have to do with the political class’s hallucination about socialism?

The 10 percenters on both sides of the political aisle make two big mistakes. First, they assume that election results reflect public opinion. In a healthy political system, that would be true. However, America’s political system in the 21st century is far from healthy.

So, when Zohran Mamdani wins a mayoral election in New York City against a flawed and scandal-tarred figure, those in the political bubble assume it reflects something significant. In reality, only about one out of 10 New York City residents voted for the current mayor. An even smaller share of the electorate voted for the democratic socialist candidates who won recent Democratic primaries for the City Council.

But despite the fact that these low-turnout election results from a very blue city have little to do with public opinion in America, those in the political bubble discern a trend that does not exist in the real world.

Scott also points out that public opinion polls, through no particular fault of their own, may give an impression of people’s views that are not accurate. Respondents may not mean what we think they mean when asked about their opinions. 

Among voters with a favorable view of socialism, 74% also have a favorable view of free markets. Not only that, but only a third—34%—of those who say they like socialism think more regulation and government involvement are good for the economy.

Those views make absolutely no sense to those who adhere to the textbook definition of socialism. However, in popular culture, the meanings of words often shift and bear little resemblance to textbook definitions. Now that I’m 70, my definition of middle age has certainly changed!

Still, the 10 percenters are fighting over socialism as they understand it. They are not paying attention to what voters think it means. Among all voters, just 51% believe that socialism is a system of higher taxes and extensive control of the economy by a central government.

If 10 percenters paid attention to voters, they’d realize how little public support there is for socialism. Just 6% of voters recognize the reality of true socialism and have a very favorable opinion of it. Another 6% recognize that reality and have a somewhat favorable opinion of socialism.

Now here’s where I depart from Scott’s optimism just a bit: So what? If people think they are voting for better roads and more efficient government when they vote for a socialist, it doesn’t matter that they didn’t mean THAT kind of socialism when they get Zohran Mamdani instead. 

The most salient problem we actually face is not, according to Scott’s numbers, which I am inclined to believe, that genuine socialism is getting more popular, but that socialists have gotten organized enough to win primary elections and, from there, to win elections to offices both local and of national importance. 

I’m thrilled to see that most Americans haven’t changed their opinions about socialism, although I would love to see poll numbers solely focused on what younger folks think, since, as they say, they are the future leaders. 

But our present problem is that actual, real-world communists are getting power. In most cases, only at the local level, but their influence is growing within the Democratic Party and moving the Overton window. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.