Salvanto: Dem Voters and Lawmakers Are Split on How, and if, Socialists Should Be Welcomed into the Democratic Party

EXCERPT:

SALVANTO: “This is your views among the American public. Socialism as a label is underwater. Capitalism is above water, among the public, rated more favorably. But let me show you that among Democrats, and that is socialism gets relatively higher positive views and capitalism more negative among Democrats. That's your start. But in terms of then what do the Democrats offer going forward, because that's really what this debate is about, well, consider this. When we ask people, look back on the last time Democrats were in power, were their economic policies successful? They're underwater on that, 54 percent, not successful. So the argument's going to be, do they need to offer something new? And then you put in perspective here what it is that Democrats say it's important for their party to do on economic issues. And they say they should be advancing what they would consider big changes, even if harder to do. So you put all that together, and that's one side of the argument. The other one, though, comes back to what I just described for you, which is that most Americans think, besides being positive on capitalism, that the free market is good for the economy.”