The perception that America is turning more socialist is not just a fringe view, according to a Monitor/TIPP poll. Debate over the size of government could influence November elections.
A woman holds an anti-Obama sign at America's Tea Party
held at Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, in this file photo.
Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters/File
Two of every five Americans today say their country is evolving into a socialist state.
That finding, contained in a new nationwide poll, highlights a central debate in the 2012 election campaign and a major challenge for President Obama.
The "socialist state" survey is just one many indicators that Americans are worried that the federal government is growing too large – a feeling that works against Mr. Obama's reelection hopes.
In a Christian Science Monitor/Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll completed last week, 40 percent of respondents generally agreed with the statement: "The US is evolving into a socialist state." That outnumbered the 36 percent who disagreed. About one-quarter of respondents expressed a neutral view or said they were unsure.
The same poll asked other questions that took America's temperature on the size of government. A majority said it should not be the government's role to redistribute wealth, and a majority said they prefer "a smaller government providing less services."
Those results, taken together, indicate an opening for Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. He's trying to seize it.
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