(The Center Square) – A slew of candidates running as democratic socialists appears to be raising alarms with a majority of American voters, according to a new poll.
The Center Square’s Voters Voice Poll found 63% of Americans are concerned with the growth of socialism or communism in American politics, while 29% are not concerned.
Of the 63% concerned, 36% say they are very concerned, while 27% say they are somewhat concerned.
Only 13% of respondents said they are not at all concerned, while 16% said they aren’t too concerned about the rise of socialism in American politics.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Aug. 12-16 and surveyed registered voters nationally via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,533 respondents, comprised of 930 Republicans, 930 Democrats, and 673 Independents. Among independent voters, 330 respondents were classified as true independents, which are individuals who do not lean toward either major party when given the choice.
Heading into the midterm elections in November, Republicans and several Democratic voices have warned against democratic socialists rising to power across the country, with the backing of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
President Donald Trump recently warned against communism as he and his administration appear to be trying to drive home the threat as the campaign season gets into full swing.
"Communism is the greatest threat to our country in its history,” the president said during a rally touting his administration’s economic policies.
During the president’s trip to visit the NATO summit in July in Turkey, Trump called communism a “disaster.”
“Communism is a disaster. It’s been proven to be for thousands of years under different names, but same thing…Whether you call them radical socialists or communists is not that much, but there’s little difference,” the president told reporters.
He continued by warning that it is difficult to “come back” from communism.
“You die in squalor, and it gets very evil and very nasty,” the president said, painting an ominous picture of communism.
It’s not only Republicans warning against socialism and communism. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., has been outspoken on several self-proclaimed democratic socialists gaining popularity within the Democratic party.
Earlier in the month, Fetterman cited a CBS News poll that found nearly 60% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism.
“The Democratic Party is becoming the party of socialism. 58% view socialism positively. 50% view capitalism negatively. I’m a proud free market capitalist. This is lunacy,” the senator wrote on social media.
Fetterman isn’t the only Democrat calling out the party’s growing socialist arm; veteran Democratic strategist James Carville has called on the Democratic Socialists of America to drop the word “Democratic” from their name to distance the party from leftist policies.
In contrast to the CBS poll, The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll found that 49% of Democratic voters are concerned with the rise in socialism or communism, while 40% weren’t concerned at all.
The poll comes as several democratic socialist candidates across the country, including in New York, Colorado, Michigan, California, and even Florida, have received the nod from Democratic voters to advance to the November elections.
The margin of error is +/- 2.0%.
