Strong moderates or capitalism-hating socialists? The data support both interpretations.

Just a general observation about framing. Much of the time, perhaps most of the time, done unconsciously.

In this instance,

Republicans express intensely negative views of “socialism” and highly positive views of “capitalism.”

By contrast, majorities of Democrats view both terms positively, though only modest shares have strong impressions of each term. https://t.co/sPSl9V2Xrx pic.twitter.com/8DStPeay7s

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) October 4, 2019

Click to expand.

Republicans express intensely negative views of “socialism” and highly positive views of “capitalism.”

By contrast, majorities of Democrats view both terms positively, though only modest shares have strong impressions of each term.

Perfectly accurate.

Now look at the data again.

Democrats like Socialism 15% more than they like Capitalism.

Democrats dislike Capitalism 35% more than they dislike Socialism.

Both statements are entirely consistent with the same underlying data and yet the first makes Democrats seem much more moderate than the second set of statements.

Deliberate? Quite conceivably not.

Consequential? Quite conceivably so.