Poll results suggest “equal opportunity capitalism” could be a broad, inclusive platform upon which to build a positive governing agenda.
Last year, America’s New Majority Project defined the choice facing America as one between “Free Market Capitalism” and “Big Government Socialism.”
Our polling revealed that Americans prefer the latter by a 4:1 margin, with 59 percent preferring free market capitalism to 16 percent for big government socialism. In focus groups with seniors and those under 65, we documented how many voters identify big government socialism with intrusiveness, waste, higher taxes and inflation.
The language we developed was essential in the broad adoption the branding of Biden Administration’s $3 trillion dollar “Build Back Better” legislation as a “Big Government Socialist” bill, which helped lead to its defeat.
Last week, we tested a variation of this language to see if we could more starkly define the choice facing America.
This time we tested “Equal Opportunity Capitalism” versus “Big Government Socialism” in addition to testing the original “Free Market Capitalism” language.
The results were encouraging.
75 percent of participants preferred Equal Opportunity Capitalism, compared to 10 percent for Big Government Socialism.
This outperformed a choice between Free Market Capitalism (67 percent) and Big Government Socialism (14 percent).
The biggest difference in support came from slightly liberal independents and swing voters, particularly women.
The results suggest the concept of “Equal Opportunity Capitalism” could be a broad platform for building a positive governing agenda.
America’s New Majority Project will continue to explore this concept in future research.
ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, DO YOU PREFER:
FREE MARKET CAPITALISM 67.2
BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALISM 14.2
DK/REFUSED 18.6
Net Diff. 53.0
ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL, DO YOU PREFER:
EQ. OPPORTUNITY CAPITALISM 75.4
BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALISM 10.0
DK/REFUSED 14.5
Net Diff. 65.4
This national poll of 1,000 General Election Voters was conducted September 16-22nd by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of America’s New Majority Project.