A round of street interviews in Portland, Maine, conducted by Fox News Digital found residents of the liberal-leaning city holding wide-ranging and sometimes shifting views on socialism once pressed to define what the system would actually mean in practice.
The questioning comes amid a midterm election cycle in which candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America have won a string of high-profile victories over more centrist Democrats in primaries this year, intensifying debate over the party’s direction.
A new Fox News national poll found 32% of voters view socialism favorably, while 64% view it unfavorably. That favorable number matches an all-time high first reached five years ago, since Fox News began polling the question in 2019. A separate Gallup poll from September found 43% of Americans held a positive view of socialism, the highest share Gallup has recorded since it began asking in 2010. By contrast, the new Fox News poll found 51% of voters view capitalism favorably and 46% view it unfavorably.
Lewis, a retired Navy veteran, said he supports socialism because it “looks out for people’s needs” and “it’s not communism.” Socialism and communism both call for collective ownership of productive assets like factories and major industries, though socialism covers a range of models that can include private enterprise, while communism traditionally envisions abolishing private ownership of productive assets altogether.
When asked whether he personally would hand over private property to government or collective control, Lewis hesitated.
“I guess. I hadn’t really thought about socialism that way. I think about taking care of the needs of people, you know, things like… national health care, things like that,” Lewis said. “I don’t like government taking things away from you.”
Nolan, a recent transplant to Portland, pointed to wealth inequality as his reason for favoring some socialist policies, saying “there’s a lot of wealth imbalance in America right now, and we could benefit from some sort of leveling system.” But he also said “business owners should have their autonomy” and that “people deserve to earn their money,” arguing instead that excess wealth at large corporations should “trickle down to people who are disadvantaged and don’t have homes.”
A resident named Nola, met in Portland’s Monument Square, called socialism “a good thing” that “means equity.” When asked directly about government takeover of businesses and the means of production, she said she still “100%” supported socialism, citing her experience as the daughter of a small business owner who struggled to compete with large corporations.
“If we gave actually back to small businesses and the government helped them out… and so much of the market that’s privatized actually became public, I think… with how big the U.S. has gotten, it’s only a good thing,” Nola said.
Not everyone agreed. A resident named Ted rejected socialism outright, warning it concentrates excessive power in government.
“Socialism overall, I think it’s a horrible idea,” Ted said. “If we can learn from history, anything from history, we see that it’s gonna really give way too much power to the government institution. It’s gonna… make things that are harmful overall for everyone… it’s like it’s dictatorship.”
Ted argued that “socialism just impoverishes,” while “the free market economy is a good thing” that “creates other wealth for other people,” even acknowledging some business owners are “very wealthy and very greedy.”
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