While Senator Sanders has allowed the word “socialism” to be more palatable in the U.S., there is a reason for that … he is not talking about (nor does he believe in) the key cornerstones of Socialism (with a capital “S”). Example: Senator Sanders is not anti-Capitalism.
What those polled want is relief from the exploitation and oppression of Capitalism … regardless of what that relief is called. Let’s be honest, most of the people polled:
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Have no real understanding of the key principles of Socialism (according to Marx and Engels),
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Do not have the commitment or fortitude to fight the struggle needed to reap the benefits of Socialism.
"Socialism is not a Utopian dream. The road to Socialism will be hard work … more work and struggle than most will be willing to endure. The following selected text from the World Socialist Party of the United States - Declaration of Independence speaks to this point:
"Socialism is no utopian dream, nor the product of imagination and not a mirage of the desert to allure and vanish, but a theory of life in which the humblest individual owns him or herself. The basis of this new cooperative commonwealth is the brotherhood of man, and the idea of brotherhood carries with it toleration and toleration means liberty of thought, liberty of opinion, liberty of action. We do not fear the man or woman that says I don’t agree with you. The only thing in this world we dread is ignorance. Think for yourself. If you oppose us – so be it for we will have infinitely more respect for you than if you support the party without thinking for yourself.
We are not after office, we want socialism. We care little about office except in so far as it represents the triumph of socialism. Socialists are not afflicted with the kind of patriotism which makes the slaves of the nation itch to murder the slaves of another nation in the interest of a plutocracy that wields the same lash over them all. It seems not a little ironic that millions are so patriotic in a country in which the only interest they will have is six feet of dirt in a cemetery.
The World Socialist Party of the United States declares that life, liberty, and happiness for every man, woman, and child are conditioned upon equal political and economic rights. That private ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth has caused society to split into two distinct classes with conflicting interests, the small possessing class of capitalists or exploiters of the labor force of others and the ever-increasing large dispossessed class of wage-workers, who are deprived of the socially-due share of their product. Our present system divides society into two classes, the “have all” and the “have nothing” class, and that it is the great mass of the people that do all the useful work who belong to the “have nothing. That capitalism, the private ownership of the means of production, is responsible for the insecurity of subsistence, the poverty, misery, and degradation of the ever-growing majority of people. That the same economic forces which have produced and now intensify the capitalist system will compel the adoption of socialism, the common ownership of the means of production for the collective good and welfare, or result in the destruction of civilization."
Source: Socialism or Your Money Back