Among Dems likely to vote, more identify as Socialist than Capitalist.

With final Des Moines Register polling showing Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton essentially even, consider this:

A little-noticed data point in the new Selzer & Co. Iowa poll, in fact, shows that 43 percent of likely [Democratic] voters in the Feb. 1 caucuses say they would use the word “socialist” to describe themselves. And to be very clear, this question was not whether they would vote for a socialist or sympathize with socialism; it’s whether they consider themselvessocialist. The 43 percent of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers who self-identify as socialist is actually more than the number who identify themselves as capitalist — 38 percent.

That’s right. More likely Democratic voters self-identify as Socialist than Capitalist.

Here is the full chart:

Daily Kos is practically giddy:

The poll also found that supporters of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders are almost twice as likely to consider themselves socialist compared to supporters of Sec. Hillary Clinton.

DMR poll: 68% of Iowa Dem caucusgoers ok with a Democratic socialist as president. — John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 30, 2016

Maybe Aleister was right to suggest this version of Bernie’s America ad:

Bernie For Glorious Leader from Aleister on Vimeo.

What flies in the Iowa Demcratic electorate, however, may not fly nationally, where being a Socialist is the least favorable attribute in a candidate, according to a June 2015 Gallup poll:

Based on that Gallup polling, Bernie Sanders would have a better chance if he were a gay Muslim Hispanic woman, than a socialist. (I understand, the polling data doesn’t work that way, but play along with me here.)

I hope Bernie wins the nomination. Oh boy, do I hope he wins.



