Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper was booed for “more than 30 seconds” after telling California Democrats that “socialism is not the answer” to defeating President Trump in 2020.
Hickenlooper–who announced his democratic presidential run in March–was speaking at the California Democratic Convention on Saturday when he made the remarks.
Townhall writes:
“If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer,” Hickenlooper said to more than 4,500 delegates on Saturday, reports CNN. The otherwise quiet observers began to boo and voice their condemnation of the statement. Their reaction lasted more than 30 seconds. Hickenlooper tried to reason with the crowd, saying, “You know, if we’re not careful, we’re going to end up helping to re-elect the worst president in history.”
John @Hickenlooper is booed at the California Democratic convention for saying: "Socialism is not the answer." pic.twitter.com/jxnJPubJ0q
— The Hill (@thehill) June 1, 2019
Socialism appears to be rising in popularity among Democrats.
A February Public Opinion Strategies survey found that 77 percent of Democrats believed the country would be “better off” if the United States became more socialist. However, a majority of all voters (51-45 percent) don’t believe that to be the case.
The survey asked 800 registered voters their opinion of the following statement: “The country would be better off if our political and economic systems were more socialist, including taxing the wealthy more to pay for social programs, nationalizing health care so that it’s government-run and redistributing wealth.”
Fortunately, the poll found that key swing voters are not supportive of socialism.
Public Opinion Strategies’ partner Neil Newhouse said, “Significant majorities of key 2020 swing voter groups like white suburban women (40 percent agree/57 percent disagree), voters in key ’20 presidential states (42 percent agree/54 percent disagree) and suburban voters (41 percent agree/56 percent disagree) all disagree with this statement.”
Other good news: Voter intensity on this issue falls on the “disagree” side.
Twenty-three percent of voters strongly agree with the statement about socialism, while 41 percent strongly disagree.
