Can You Guess How Popular Bernie Sanders’s Policies Are?

Sen. Bernie Sanders has staked out some of the furthest-left positions of any recent presidential candidate, but can he get the public to back them? Polls show that some of his ideas may be too progressive for many Americans … but others are downright popular. Can you guess which are which?

Let’s start with an easy one. Sanders wants to legalize recreational marijuana across the country, while Biden wants to decriminalize it on the federal level — so violations would come with penalties like fines instead of jail time — and let the states decide on legalization.

What percentage of Americans supports making marijuana use legal? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 66% of Americans support making marijuana use legal. Source: Gallup poll, Oct. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: Americans agreed with Sanders on this one. That included a majority of Democrats, independents and Republicans, so this stance shouldn’t hurt him at all, even in a general election.

Medicare for All emerged early on as a major dividing line in the primary. Biden opposes it, preferring to offer patients a public option in addition to their current health-insurance choices. But Sanders is the standard-bearer for an aggressive Medicare-for-All plan, arguing that government-run health insurance should essentially replace private insurance.

What percentage of Americans think Medicare for All, defined as a national health insurance program for all Americans that replaces private health insurance, is a good idea? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 42% of Americans support Medicare for All. Source: NPR/PBS/Marist College poll, Dec. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: While a solid 42 percent of Americans supported Medicare for All, an even larger 51 percent opposed it. Meanwhile, in the same poll, 58 percent supported Biden’s plan for a public option that would compete with private insurance (only 35 percent opposed it). While Medicare for All enjoyed 63 percent support among Democrats, it was anathema to independents, who said 57 percent to 37 percent that it was a bad idea. (Republicans, unsurprisingly, were even more strongly opposed.)

One of Sanders’s most attention-grabbing campaign promises is “free college”; essentially, the government would not charge tuition to students attending public colleges and universities. Let’s see how popular it is among the general public.

What percentage of registered voters support providing free tuition at state colleges and universities? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 58% of Americans support free college. Source: NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Sept. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: Turns out free college is pretty popular; only 39 percent of voters said they opposed it. A stance like this could help Sanders — or Biden — in November.

Sanders also supports a tax on extreme wealth, an idea popularized this election by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. As far as we know, no polls have asked about the specific details of Sanders’s proposed tax, which starts with a 1 percent tax on net worth above $32 million for a married couple and gets gradually steeper the richer you are. But take a stab at guessing how the general public felt about the details of Warren’s wealth tax.

What percentage of registered voters favor a 2 percent wealth tax on an individual’s net worth over $50 million? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 68% of Americans support a wealth tax. Source: Fox News poll, Dec. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: Warren’s wealth tax was extremely popular among Americans of all political persuasions — 83 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents and even 51 percent of Republicans supported it. If the Democratic nominee campaigns on a wealth tax in the fall, it doesn’t look like it would hurt him.

In the first Democratic primary debate, Sanders was among the many candidates who raised their hands when asked if they supported making illegal border crossings a civil, rather than criminal, offense, meaning people would no longer face jail time, though they could still be deported for the civil violation. However, Biden says he would maintain the status quo. Let’s see which side Americans come down on.

What percentage of Americans think decriminalizing illegal border crossings is a good idea? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 29% of Americans support decriminalizing border crossings. Source: NPR/PBS/Marist College poll, Dec. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: This is one of Sanders’s most unpopular positions, and it could open him up to attacks if he makes it to the general election. Independents oppose decriminalization 70 percent to 24 percent; even among Democrats, only a bare majority (51 percent) support it.

OK, last one. Author Marianne Williamson and billionaire Tom Steyer were the two loudest voices in the field arguing that the U.S. government should pay reparations for slavery. Biden and Sanders, however, have mostly steered clear of the issue, although they’re in favor of at least studying what a reparations plan might look like.

What percentage of Americans think the federal government should pay reparations for slavery and racial discrimination to the descendants of enslaved people? 0 25 50 75 100 Margin of error 50% 29% of Americans support reparations for slavery. Source: AP/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, Sept. 2019 Guess

The takeaway: Reparations are not popular among the general public, so Biden and Sanders should hope it does not come up as a major issue in the fall. However, there is a stark racial divide: Only 15 percent of white people support reparations, but 74 percent of black people do.

As much as Sanders’s ideas may seem radical, not all of them are unpopular with the people who will decide the November election. And on some issues, it is Biden, not Sanders, who is out of the mainstream. So if Democratic primary voters are worried about which positions would be the most broadly palatable in the general election, the answer isn’t necessarily the most moderate ones.