The midterm elections are so intriguing, but you know what matters a lot? Even though the president has come out a few times and said, you know what, I'm not that concerned about the midterms. I'm looking big picture for the country. If he wasn't concerned about the midterms, before Labor Day, he's visiting Texas, and evidently he's going to do 30 visits, 30 cities in 30 days, or 30 states in 30 days, in order to shore up what he hopes is the Senate and hold on to the House. Is that possible, Debuck history?
How are the American people feeling about it? We always hear that financial pocketbook issues are the big issues. Dr. Todd Rose has done the research. He's co-founder and CEO of the think tank Populace.
He was a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
So, Todd Rose, welcome back. Let me get your thoughts right. What's the psyche of the American people right now? How are they feeling about the economy?
Well, people are really frustrated. And as you know, we don't do polling. We do this private opinion research.
So we get at what people really, truly think, not just what they think is okay to say out loud. And what we find is An overwhelming amount of resentment. It's like something's not right, things don't feel fair, and they want some solutions. And we got interested right now in this because of the rise of seeming rise of socialism and these DSA candidates that are winning primaries. And so, our newest research, we wanted to dig in and just be like, what's going on there and try to better understand what that might mean for the country.
And you believe that the support for capitalism is cratering?
So it's interesting. We looked at capitalism and socialism and these things, and It turns out that we're really overstating our support for capitalism right now. Everybody is. And that's a little troubling to me, given how important that is to our prosperity. For example, Publicly, 46% of Americans say they have a favorable view of capitalism.
In private, it's only 34%. And what makes it even worse is, even when you just look at Republicans, Who you would think could be the strongest supporters, 68% publicly say, yeah, I like capitalism. It's only 46% in private. And so we get a little nervous about that. I will tell you though, Brian, the thing I'm a little more concerned about is.
This rise of DSA and our willingness to vote for them. And if you don't mind, I'd love to jump into that a little bit. No, absolutely. Let's do it. I mean, number one, I don't get it.
And number three, too, if you told me that this is what they're running on, and you just said, Brian, here, therefore, get rid of the border, no prisons, get rid of the Senate, eventually reconfigure the presidency. And the Supreme Court, I go, okay, and by the way, get rid of the Defense Department.
So if you told me that, I'd go, yeah, they're going to get maybe 1% of the vote. Why are they resonating? Here's what's so interesting.
So we looked at people's willingness to vote for a DSA candidate, right? Just would you consider it? Turns out 42% of the country says yes to that in private.
Well, you look just at Democrats, right? Because people say, well, maybe this is just a fringe thing. It's not even, it's not. Publicly, two-thirds of Democrats say they would vote for him. In private, it's even more.
83% vote. of Democrats would vote for a DSA candidate. It's what's interesting about that is, I said, okay, you see a third of independents would. And so we were like, okay, what's behind that? Is it that they actually want socialism?
Because as you just point out, The DSA is not They're not shy about saying what they're really for, right? They want to seize the means of production. They want to do these things.
Okay. It turns out that when we ask though, okay.
Well, do you think America would be better as a socialist country? If you want to vote for these people, well, this is where it falls apart, right? Only 11% of Americans in private actually think we should be socialist.
So nine out of 10 people don't really want this. What I really thought was interesting is. All the narrative is like, well, the young kids, the young Gen Z, oh, they're all socialists. Not true. While a third of them publicly say they want to be socialists, it's only 14% in private.
So, what we're seeing here, and what we're putting together is. People are frustrated. The DSA is making it sound like we want socialism. Right, that's good for them. We don't, but we are frustrated.
And I think people are saying, look, I'll vote for someone who will try to address this, even if it might be a really awful choice in the end.
So when we look at this, we think, look, we've got to take this seriously. We could end up in a socialist oriented society, not because people wanted it, but because we're so frustrated that we were willing to vote for whoever. You know, during the Cold War they would try to sell that they have a better system. But please point to a socialist system that's working. We're watching Cuba fall apart, Nicaragua fall apart, Central and South America, these socialist countries going back to a more democratic possibility.
And a leader, tell me that you envy Russia's system. Tell me anything about even you look at the Nordic countries that Bernie Sanders used to love to compare it to. They're getting more and more free market entities back in. Then you look at socialist medicine, the UK and Canada. I used to get that all the time.
But then if you talk to any Brit or any Canadian, nobody's happy with that. Yeah. It doesn't work. This is the thing. This is a system that has been tried.
Not only does it not work, it causes more misery, suffering, and desperation than just about anything. And I think what's interesting is, I'll tell you, we have some more data coming out shortly, but I'll just tell you this here. It's funny. We asked them: well, what do you think socialism means? And it turns out they don't know what it means, right?
So, two-thirds of Democrats privately believe it just means more welfare. Not seizing the means of production. And I want to point them to the DSA platform to show you, like, this is not what it's about. Right. And so I look at this and I say, look, it there's bad there's urgency people would vote for these candidates The good news is it's not because they're ideologically aligned to it.
They don't want socialism, but there is something wrong. And we need capitalism isn't working for enough of us. And we've got to be laser focused on acknowledging that. And actually making it better for people, not by going socialist. And I've always said this: Scott Besson was doing.
Our show for about two years. Before he was Treasury Secretary. And I knew he was really rich, and he worked for George Soros for a while when George Soros was more of an investor and less of a political activist. And he was just talking about how he came from, he watched his dad lose everything and then battle all the way back. And he had a job since he was 11 years old, and now he's clearly a billionaire.
And I said, why would you want this job? He said, because I'm really concerned about income inequality. He goes, it's really spreading. And I wanted to see if I could try to fix it.
So is that somehow the fruit is that the frustration you're hearing about? It is. And what's funny is, in our data, Americans don't resent wealthy people, despite what Democrats keep saying, Democratic socialists say. They think billionaires that earned it honestly deserve it. It's not that.
It's that they have this sneaking suspicion that the game is rigged against them and their children, and they don't even have the opportunity to earn their own success. But when we start making progress, I'll give you a good example. We can turn this around. We've been tracking this unfairness and resentment for five years. It's been In the dumpster for a while, upwards of eight out of ten Americans think society is unfair.
When you saw the administration start to go against DEI, says dismantle these things. That has already led to a double-digit increase in perceived fairness, including amongst Democrats.
So, despite ignore the media narrative, stuff like that, get back to brass tax. As Americans, we don't want other people's money. We want a chance to earn our own success, and we just want a fair shot. When policies are happening that we believe lead to that, we start to feel better about society. When that's not happening, we get really resentful and we start lashing out and being willing to make really dumb decisions like voting for Democratic socialists.
Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pro's number one most trusted app. If you're hearing me, I'm going to assume you're awake. And if you aren't, Because while you're snoozing, someone else might be finding your dream home. That's where realtor.com comes in.
With over 500,000 new real listings straight from the pros every month, that's a lot of chances to find the place you've been dreaming of. Whether you're searching for a two-story mid-century with a pool or a little extra space with a spa-inspired bathroom, Realtor.com can help you find it today.
So quit hitting that snooze button. Realtor.com isn't sleeping on finding your dream home, and neither should you. Download the Realtor.com app today because you're nearly home. Make it real with Realtor.com. Pro's number one most trusted app based on August 2024 proprietary survey.
Over 500,000 new listings every month based on average new for sale and rental listings, February 2024 through January 2025. Did you know Fox News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping? That's right. Check one more gift off your list with the Fox News Wine Shop Advent Calendar.
Featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a $19.99 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season. Quantities are limited, so visit FoxNewsWineshop.com today. Yeah, I guess so.
The one thing I heard too is capitalism is not a popular word, but free markets are. If you tell people free markets, opportunity, they begin to understand. But also, a lot of people, I'm just overall surprised. There are very few things that surprised me. Number one, I was caught by surprise by the data center's backlash.
That can't be fixed. If you build it irresponsibly and there's a loud hum and you use the power and up, you know, you up everyone's utility bills, they're going to be mad. Got it. But people now pushing back on AI. As a concept.
and pushing back on data centers As a program. That to me, when they were booing commencement addresses that mentioned AI, wow. And I see this as a couple of things. And you'll see some interesting brought this up. You'll see some more data come out from us in the next week or two around this exact topic, but I'll give you a sneak peek.
It is true that people are worried. The AI data centers, we also know from some of our other work that China has been directly Infusing propaganda against AI centers into social media, targeting particularly young people. We know that as a matter of fact, because it's a really phenomenal way to slow us down and curb our lead in the AI race.
Now, that doesn't mean, as you said earlier, look, there are some problems. We've got to be careful, we've got to do this right. AI data centers are actually pretty darn good job creators and they're pretty good for communities when they're done right. But if we keep allowing this kind of manipulation and distorting what we think we all believe as Americans, bad things are going to happen. But the good news is in private, we're still Americans, right?
We still believe in meritocracy. We still want the American dream. We still want the basics of what you might already believe. It's just we don't think other people agree with us right now and it's a problem. Wow, so interesting.
So that was one of the biggest issues.
So you covered a lot of it.
So if the elections were held today, you were considering for a democratic social issue. Said 42% of the general public privately say they would. As opposed to 83% of Democrats. Wow.
So it is not a fringe thing in the Democratic Party. That's where the energy is, right? This is a problem. And a third of independents would consider it.
Now, again, what I just say is this isn't because outside of the Democratic Party, it's not because it's ideological. It's because they don't feel like people are addressing the real roots of unfairness and they're willing to try anything.
So let's not get to that place, right? Let's, you know, I think the president's done a decent job speaking to that. And we need to double down on it. People just want a chance to earn their own success and they don't think they live in that society right now. Wow.
Dr. Todd Rose, co-founder and CEO of Populous, thanks so much. I got to have you back on the data center's AI stuff, too. Absolutely. All right.
Good to see you. Go get him. Thanks, Sean. Did you know Fox News has a wine shop? Did you also know you can get ahead and start on your Christmas shopping?
That's right. Check one more gift off your list with the Fox News Wine Shop Advent Calendar. Featuring 12 festive wines inspired by the holiday magic of Fox Square. You can reserve yours for just a $19.99 deposit. We'll deliver it free right to your doorstep in time for the holiday season.
Quantities are limited, so visit Foxnewswineshop.com today.
