Public: Socialism doesn't sound so bad!

During the election I noted that the right-wing's cries of "socialism" were not only tone deaf given the age of the electorate but that they were most likely counter-productive as well. Today a poll from Rasmussen (which is a right-leaning polling firm) confirms the obvious.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.

Here's Steve Benen,

You just can't have an effective red scare with numbers like these.

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.

But I was especially intrigued by the 27% who weren't sure which was better. Talk about a sign of the times -- more than one in four aren't quite sure whether capitalism or socialism is the superior system.

These all seem like reasonable explanations and they are all of course completely foreseeable outcomes of pushing such a tired and baseless meme. Foreseeable that is by all except the most delusional of wingers.

God (or is it Allah?) has blessed Barack Obama and the Democratic Party with opponents who are very, very stupid.