According to the media, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sander's (D-VT) campaign is gaining momentum. If you consider trailing Hillary Clinton by "only" 50 points in national polls instead of 70 "momentum," then I suppose they have a point.
But, there's trouble on the horizon for Sanders if he somehow manages to wrest the Democratic nomination from the current front runner. Sanders is a self described "Democratic Socialist." While it's unclear exactly what makes him different run-of-the-mill liberals, he uses the "socialist" label and wears it proudly.
Unfortunately for Sanders, self-described "socialists" are not popular in this country. According to a recent Gallup Poll, only 47% of Americans would ever consider voting for a socialist candidate for the presidency. Far behind the number of those who would consider voting for a candidate who is an atheist (58%), a Muslim (60%) or a candidate who is openly gay (74%).
Not surprisingly, when broken down by party, a majority of Democrats (59%) say they would vote for a self-described Socialist, though that number is still far lower than any of the other choices presented to these Democrats in the poll.
Interestingly, a quarter of Republicans said they would consider voting for a Socialist, which implies that they either aren't actually Republicans or are confused about what the word "socialist" actually means.
In fact, a lot of people who are okay with the idea of "socialism" have no idea what socialism actually is - as we discovered in a video that MRCTV did last year.