So, it’s pretty clear that there is no optics problem in practice. The reality is that liberals are just opposed to socialism because they represent the left wing of fascism.
The optics isn’t for people who are already saying they like socialism. It’s for the people who recognize the Democrats aren’t meeting the moment but still think socialism is when taxes.
Who cares about them, the polls I linked show that there’s already a critical mass of people who support socialism. These are the rational people to focus organizing efforts on.
Meanwhile in the real world, even libertarian cato institute found that communism and socialism are popular among anybody who’s not a fossil https://www.cato.org/blog/new-poll-nearly-half-americans-dont-know-what-americas-250th-celebrating
Not only that, but the numbers are rising since their poll last year https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix
So, it’s pretty clear that there is no optics problem in practice. The reality is that liberals are just opposed to socialism because they represent the left wing of fascism.
The optics isn’t for people who are already saying they like socialism. It’s for the people who recognize the Democrats aren’t meeting the moment but still think socialism is when taxes.
Who cares about them, the polls I linked show that there’s already a critical mass of people who support socialism. These are the rational people to focus organizing efforts on.