When Victims of Communism’s annual poll of America’s attitude to socialism and capitalism was released in October, it was, once again, a disturbing read. The poll, conducted by YouGov, shows increasing support for communism and a decline in support for capitalism, among young people in particular. A whopping 70% of US millennials declare themselves likely to vote for a socialist, with one in five saying they would be “very likely” to do so – twice the number who said so in last year’s survey. An astonishing 22% of them believe “society would be better if all private property was abolished.” As Marion Smith, the Executive Director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Fund put it: “The historical amnesia about the dangers of communism and socialism is on full display in the year’s report.”
And it’s not just in the US that socialism is proving popular with the young. In Britain, despite the recent General Election defeat suffered by Jeremy Corbyn’s hard left Labour party, the (conservative) pollster Michael Ashcroft found that Labour received almost three times as many votes from the under-35s as the Tories in the December election. Much has been made of this Labour defeat being the worst since Michael Foot lost to Margaret Thatcher in 1983, but back then the Conservatives were backed by the young. Now, it seems, the right has a big battle on its hands to prevent demographics from slowly eating into their support base. The British election demonstrated how the political divide is increasingly cultural, rather than economic, pitting woke millennials and metropolitan elites against traditional working class and rural communities. This is perilous for the left, who could lose purpose as a broad, popular movement. But the generation gap is widening as well, and that’s a danger to the right.
We have previously identified three main reasons why the young are so attracted to collectivist ideology: a lack of education, the housing crisis and the failure of politicians to make a passionate case for free market capitalism. The first two are difficult to deal with in the short term, as they require significant structural reform. But the latter could start today: politicians could recognise the danger and devise bold, free market policy and start the process of moving the Overton window away from the left. So, what are they doing?
Well, Boris Johnson’s latest landmark policy for the new Parliament is an increase in the minimum wage from £8.21 an hour to £8.72. The idea, presumably, is to tackle the left from the left, aiming to deflect accusations of being uncaring and on the side of the wealthy. Boris wants to shed the image of the “nasty Tories.” But already, people complain that £8.72 is not a high wage compared to the income of the richest in society – which is isn’t. It’s a highly predictable reaction, because every time the right goes left on policy, their motives are questioned and their actions are criticised for being insufficient. The minimum wage is poor economics, it hurts the most vulnerable and benefits organised labour. It is a perfect starting point for a principled discussion of the merits of a free market – but there seems to be zero appetite for it. Instead, the Tories have already committed to a host of leftist politics: back in June they approved a world-leading goal of cutting CO2 emissions to virtually zero by 2050 and on their legislative agenda are things like a funding bonanza for the NHS and an end to “no fault evictions” of private tenants.
The young’s infatuation with leftism is a clear and present danger to a free society. The right’s strategy has, for many years, been to swerve left on policy and rhetoric and hope the young will follow the old adage of becoming more conservative with age. It’s a dangerously complacent strategy, in addition to being a complete surrender of both principle and policy. The left may suffer occasional setbacks as a political movement, as they did last month in Britain, but unless the right wakes up, socialist politics is on an unstoppable march to becoming the new normal.