The Democratic Party has moved rapidly to the left over the past 20 years.
And pressured by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the party continues its leftward drift.
Now, one shock poll shows that for the first time ever, Democrats support the Cuban economic model over American free-market capitalism.
If anyone has followed Democratic Party politics over the last 20 years, it takes little effort to show that the party has moved rapidly to the left since the dawn of the 21st century.
But now, a new poll by Fox News shows that that leftward drift is only accelerating to new extremes.
And for the first time in polling history, more Democrats are now in favor of socialism than free market capitalism, representing a decisive leftward shift in the party towards economic models found in Venezuela and Cuba, two of the least free and most impoverished nations in the western hemisphere.
The Washington Examiner reports, “Democrats have grown considerably more accepting of socialism since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a new poll.
A survey by Fox News conducted this week found that 59% of Democratic voters hold a favorable opinion of socialism, compared to 49% who said the same of capitalism. Furthermore, 44% of Democrats hold an unfavorable view of capitalism, compared to 31% who view socialism negatively.”
This represents a dramatic shift to the Left in a very short amount of time.
Even with the Democratic Party being more left-wing today than ever before, it wasn’t that long ago when a majority of Democrats said they supported capitalism over socialism.
According to Fox News, “The new results are a marked shift from February 2020, when 40% of Democratic voters said they held a favorable view of socialism, compared to half who said the same about capitalism.”
“The poll comes as the House has become imbued with a vocal contingent of socialists and those who support socialist priorities. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was elected in 2018 after a shocking primary upset and has since championed policies such as “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal,” adds the Washington Examiner.
Since being elected three years ago, Ocasio-Cortez has been joined by other socialist Democrats in Congress, most notably Cori Bush of Missouri, who earned widespread condemnation when she tweeted this summer that the 4th of July represented a holiday that only matters to White Americans.
In stark contrast to Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez and Bush, an overwhelming majority of Republicans still support free market capitalism, which has been the hallmark of American exceptionalism and economic growth for centuries.
In fact, the latest Fox News poll shows that just 8% of Republicans have a favorable view of socialism.
This has in part been driven by a surge of refugees from socialist dictatorships like Cuba and Venezuela. Cuban and Venezuelan Americans voted overwhelmingly for Republicans in the 2020 elections, and hold some of the strongest views against socialist economics of any demographic group in America.