Poll Theater: Bosses Pump Fear, Pollsters Count It

Fifty-two percent of registered voters now hold an unfavorable view of socialism. That's the headline out of the October Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, and it's the first time a majority has said so in the last three such polls. Just 25 percent view the word favorably. Net favorability: -27 points.

The survey reached 2,700 registered voters between October 24 and 26, concluding five days before today. Margin of error: plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. The August poll had 26 percent favorable and 48 percent unfavorable, a net of -21. September showed 29 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable, a net of -19. Then the slide. The lowest reading since August.

Who Has the Power

Follow the megaphones. At the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas about a month ago, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed Democrats were running as communists, though no credible midterm candidate identifies as one. The Democratic Party had been overthrown by "crazed lunatics and radicals," he said. "It's going to be a communist country if they win." House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that "the communists will be in Congress."

The academics read the tea leaves plainly. "The label is getting hammered by Republican messaging, so I imagine that's having an effect," Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek. "And there may be some association now for some voters between socialism and communism, given that messaging." Costas Panagopoulos of Northeastern University pointed to "the intensive offensive against democratic socialism by Trump and Republican candidates on the campaign trail and in ads in recent weeks."

So the poll isn't measuring what people want. It's measuring how well a word can be poisoned by people who own the microphones.

What They're Calling "Choice"

The numbers get stranger when you stop asking about the label. A new Economist/YouGov poll found 50 percent of registered voters would vote for a democratic socialist, 41 percent would not, 9 percent were unsure. Strip off the scare word and half the electorate says yes.

But the menu stays rigged. Asked to choose, 52 percent preferred a moderate Republican focused on cutting spending and reducing the deficit over a democratic socialist favoring higher taxes; 48 percent picked the democratic socialist who wants to raise taxes on billionaires, back Medicare-for-all and abolish ICE. A majority, 51 percent, called capitalism the better system. Twenty percent said socialism. Twenty-nine percent weren't sure. Among Democrats, 25 percent chose capitalism, 38 percent socialism, and 38 percent didn't know. That's 1,440 registered voters, October 23 to 26, margin of error 3 points.

Nobody asked those voters about running anything themselves.

The Electoral Treadmill

The Democratic Socialists of America describe their goal as a system "where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society," with collective ownership of "key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation." Their route runs through ballot boxes. Democratic socialism, per the source, holds that any move toward a more socialist economy must happen through democratic institutions, civil liberties and competitive elections.

So here's the lineup. Angie Nixon, a Florida state representative and DSA member, is challenging Republican Senator Ashley Moody, who recent polls show ahead. Rashida Tlaib, first elected eight years ago, is running for a fifth term in Michigan's 12th District. Melat Kiros ousted 30-year incumbent Representative Diana DeGette in Colorado's 1st and is favored against Republican Christy Peterson. Chris Rabb is favored in Pennsylvania's 3rd. Angela Gonzales-Torres is challenging Democrat Jimmy Gomez in California's 34th. Darializa Avila Chevalier, who once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, beat Representative Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th primary. Claire Valdez beat the handpicked successor of retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez in New York's 7th.

All three of Zohran Mamdani's endorsed candidates beat establishment Democrats in June. Mamdani himself won New York City's mayoralty one year ago.

The pattern is hard to miss. Insurgents knock out incumbents in primaries, then face a general election where Republicans scream "communist" and a net -27 favorability number hangs over the whole enterprise. Panagopoulos conceded that deteriorating views could affect races like Michigan's Senate contest, though outcomes "will ultimately reflect a broader swath of considerations."

Both parties are fighting over who gets to administer the apparatus. Republicans are doing so amid Trump's falling approval ratings, driven by voter concerns about high prices and the Iran war, while they defend slim majorities. The people paying those high prices and living through that war aren't in the poll's headline. They never are.