A new Fox News poll finds that 75% of voters rate the economy as “not so good” or “poor,” and 44% say their personal financial situation is getting worse rather than better. Yet in the same election cycle, California voters rejected a proposed wealth tax by a margin of 57% or more, according to an opinion column by pollster Mark Penn published on Fox News.
Penn, writing in a Fox News opinion piece, points to a contradiction in the midterm results: voters expressed deep economic anxiety even as inflation has fallen from roughly 9% annually under President Biden to about 3% under President Trump, alongside what he describes as strong economic growth, solid employment, and the lowest poverty rate in American history.
Despite that improvement, voters this week elected candidates Penn identifies as responsible for a large share of prior inflation, and backed six new members of the Democratic Socialists of America for Congress, bringing the group’s total in Congress to at least eight.
Socialism Loses When It’s on the Ballot
But when a specific socialist-style policy was put directly before voters, it failed. California’s proposed wealth tax, which would have taxed accumulated wealth rather than income, was defeated by 57% or more on November 3.
The same Fox News poll found capitalism far more popular than socialism as a concept: 56% of respondents viewed capitalism favorably versus 32% unfavorably, a net advantage of 23 points. Socialism drew only 33% favorable and 53% unfavorable ratings. A separate Fox News poll asked whether moving the country from capitalism toward socialism would be good or bad; 38% said good and 61% said bad.
Penn also cites a Harris poll suggesting many young people who initially say they support socialism go on to say they want to own homes and businesses and be paid according to individual merit rather than equally — a pattern he argues reveals that many self-described socialists hold fundamentally capitalist aspirations.
Penn’s Prescription
Penn argues that the real driver of voter dissatisfaction isn’t capitalism itself but the everyday difficulty many Americans report in affording a home, a car, or other markers of middle-class life — even as broader economic indicators look healthy. His proposed remedies are conventional rather than redistributive: lower interest rates, lower taxes, expanded U.S. energy production, and affordable health care that does not involve a government takeover of the system.
