Monday, August 17, 2026

DATA: More Democrats Favor Socialism Over Capitalism.

A CBS News/YouGov poll has revealed a significant preference for socialism over capitalism among Democrats, despite a preference for the latter among Americans generally, highlighting the party’s lurch to the left.

PULSE POINTS
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: Roughly six in 10 Democrats have a positive view of socialism, according to a new poll.
📺 DETAIL: According to a poll commissioned by CBS News and conducted by YouGov, 58 percent of Democrats have a positive view of socialism. In contrast, only 32 percent of Democrats said they view capitalism positively. The survey indicates a 26-point gap in favor of socialism among Democrats. This makes socialism the preferred economic system among Democrats. The poll also revealed that 50 percent of Democrats have a negative view of capitalism compared to only 18 percent of Democrats who have a negative view of socialism. Democrats who registered having “no opinion” on socialism and capitalism were 24 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Overall, the poll found that 46 percent of Americans have a positive view of capitalism and 35 percent have a positive view of socialism. In contrast, 33 percent have a negative view of capitalism, and 42 percent have a negative view of socialism. The poll surveyed 2,287 U.S. adults from August 12 to August 14.
🎯 IMPACT: This reflects similar findings reported earlier in the year. Back in July, it was revealed that approximately one-third of Democrats and Democrat-aligned adults describe themselves as Democratic Socialists. This includes two-thirds of Democrats and Democrat-aligned adults under the age of 45. This is despite the fact that the general public tends to view Democratic Socialism negatively. Earlier this month, it was revealed that roughly 50 percent of New Yorkers oppose the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the far-left political organization currently taking over the Democrats. The CBS News/YouGov poll underscores the broader ideological shift among Democrats towards socialism and far-left politics generally. This could create problems for the party as it seeks to win over moderate and Independent voters in national and state-wide elections. This is because support for Democratic Socialism is typically concentrated among younger voters living in urban areas, with minimal appeal among older voters and voters living in suburban and rural areas.

Image by Tony Northrup.

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.

show less

A CBS News/YouGov poll has revealed a significant preference for socialism over capitalism among Democrats, despite a preference for the latter among Americans generally, highlighting the party's lurch to the left.

show more

OpenAI Boss Ditches Democrats Over Embrace of Socialism.

PULSE POINTS

WHAT HAPPENED: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he feels politically homeless, lamenting that the Democratic Party has abandoned its support of a “culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” embracing a radical socialist ideology pushed by figures like Zohran Mamdani instead.

👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Sam Altman, Zohran Mamdani, and the Democratic Party.

📍WHEN & WHERE: Altman leveled his criticism in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in July 2025.

💬KEY QUOTE: “So now I am politically homeless. But that’s fine; I care much, much more about being American than any political party.” — Sam Altman

🎯IMPACT: The OpenAI CEO joins a growing number of wealthy Democrat donors who are reconsidering their allegiance to the party in the face of the growing influence of radical figures like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

IN FULL

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, says the Democratic Party no longer fosters a “culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” leaving him feeling “politically homeless.” In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the artificial intelligence (AI) mogul explained that he was drawn to the party in his twenties during what he described as an embrace of “techno-capitalism” under Barack Obama.

“We should encourage people to make tons of money and then also find ways to widely distribute wealth and share the compounding magic of capitalism. One doesn’t work without the other; you cannot raise the floor and not also raise the ceiling for very long,” Altman wrote in the post, seemingly in response to New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani—a self-described socialist—who recently declared that billionaires should not exist.

The OpenAI CEO lamented that Democrats, at one time, seemed “reasonably aligned” with a “culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.” However, Altman said he now believes that the party “los[t] the plot when I was 30, and [has] completely… moved somewhere else at this point.”

“So now I am politically homeless. But that’s fine; I care much, much more about being American than any political party,” Altman. The billionaire added: “I’d rather hear from candidates about how they are going to make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires.”

The mayoral candidacy of Mamdani, a foreign-born follower of Shia Islam’s extreme “Twelver” sect, has sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party, with a number of its wealthier donors considering backing incumbent Mayor Eric Adams‘s independent re-election bid.

Image by World Economic Forum / Benedikt von Loebell.

Join Pulse+ to comment below, and receive exclusive e-mail analyses.

show less
show more

Britain’s Economic Preference: Socialism Over Capitalism?

Polling suggests that the general public in the United Kingdom is more favorable to socialism than capitalism, although environmentalism is the most popular ideology overall. Socialism in Britain has long been linked to institutions like the National Health Service (NHS), which remains one of the most popular institutions in the country, despite major scandals.

Despite the results, broadly socialist candidates like former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have failed to win elections.

Conservatism, which came third in the polling by YouGov, is also largely associated with the Conservative Party, which just suffered a historic loss to the Labour Party in the national election in July. However, the Conservatives, or Tories, legalized same-sex marriages and presided over the rise of woke ideology in Britain, and are not socially conservative in any meaningful, ideological sense.

Populism, often associated with the rise of Brexit leader Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, is only slightly more popular than communism among Britons. Reform, however, does not refer to itself as a “populist” party, referring to its anti-mass migration stance and other policies as “common sense.”

Reform is becoming increasingly popular in Britain, with polls showing the party ahead of Labour, which has a large majority in parliament and currently governs the country under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

While the Tories are number one in the polls, their lead is not significantly ahead of Reform, and as many as 53 percent of Tory members support the party joining forces with Farage in either an alliance or outright merger.

Image by Paasikivi.

show less
Polling suggests that the general public in the United Kingdom is more favorable to socialism than capitalism, although environmentalism is the most popular ideology overall. Socialism in Britain has long been linked to institutions like the National Health Service (NHS), which remains one of the most popular institutions in the country, despite major scandals. show more