Poll results

1 data point that should make Democrats nervous

That's the finding of a new Gallup Poll that showed that 57% of Democrats (and Democratic leaning voters) have a positive view of socialism, while just 47% of Democrats (and Democratic leaners) have a positive view of capitalism. That's the first time in the last decade of Gallup data -- they've asked the question a total of four times -- that socialism has passed capitalism in the eyes of Democrats. (Republicans are less sanguine about socialism, with just 16% holding a positive view of it while 71% have a favorable opinion of capitalism.)

Numbers like that come as a strain of socialism grows stronger within the Democratic Party -- as evidenced by Bernie Sanders' surprisingly strong showing in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary process and the stunning upset of Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders refer to themselves as democratic socialists.

"Democrats are a big tent party," Ocasio Cortez told NBC's Chuck Todd earlier this summer when asked about her alignment with socialism. "I'm not trying to impose an ideology on all several hundred members of Congress. But I do think that once again it's not about selling an ism, or an ideology, or a label or a color, it's about selling our values."