A recent survey reports 37 percent of Americans over the age of 18 “prefer socialism to capitalism.” After Bernie Sanders near-run candidacy last year, that cannot be much of a surprise. Still, the U.S. historically has stood out among Western nations due to its lack of a sizeable socialist movement. So what's changed?
Well, first, it's unclear that the U.S. actually has a socialist movement, despite these numbers. Surveys have yet to plumb what self-identifying American “socialists” believe. I see little evidence of a broadening desire for “hard” socialism, coming in the form of desire for widespread social ownership of the means of production. Rather, advocacy for social ownership remains on a case-by-case basis, with the health system being the focus of most attention today. And even then advocates for a truly socialized system of medicine still reside on the edges of the policy debate.
Read Full Article »