Liberal haven festival-goers weigh government seizure of their homes: 'I'd be so game'
During a Sunday street festival in a notoriously liberal Maryland hotspot just across the Washington, D.C. border, some attendees told Fox News Digital they wouldn't mind if the government seized their property, including their homes.
"Yeah, I mean broadly," said Maryland resident Matt Volk when asked if he would support the government taking his home. "It's highly situational, but I definitely think that there's a lot of privately owned land and property that would be better put to use for public use, for resources and housing and things like that for people who are in need of things like that."
Fox News Digital took to the streets during a rainy Sunday at the Takoma Park Street Festival to interview area residents about just how much power they would be willing to cede to the government as socialism becomes increasingly popular, especially among younger Americans.
Takoma Park is a liberal bastion just outside the nation's capital, where homes and businesses are adorned with LGBT pride paraphernalia, along with decorations marking their support for other leftist causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.
One attendee, Karen Irwin, sported a t-shirt that said "Auntifa: Making White men uncomfortable since 1975." She agreed with Volk's sentiment.
"I mean, if we were all doing it, I'd be so game," she said. "Do you know what I mean? And who's coming to me? Is this a decision I'm making through democratic means? Then yes, yes, I would be so game. If I voted for it, sure."
"You want to be able to keep your property. From what time are we talking? From what in the history of this country? Is it just right now, from right now moving forward, whatever it is you have?" Irwin asked. "Or, you know, 100 years ago, when someone else had it. But the government might have taken it away for whatever reason."
A Fox News poll from March found that 38% of those asked said it was a good idea to move away from capitalism and towards socialism.
Very liberal voters (66%) and Democrats under age 45 (66%) are those most likely to think moving to socialism would be good. More than half of all Democrats (55%), Black voters (55%) and those under age 30 (53%) also favor moving away from capitalism.
While the majority of Americans, especially Republicans and conservatives, still reject socialism, only 51% say capitalism is working well. The other 49% say it isn't.
A third person at the Takoma Park street fair on Sunday said the government seizure of his home was a possibility.
"I don't know that I would necessarily love it, but I mean, if it was something that was beneficial I'd at least consider it," said Jaw Blake, a Maryland resident.
"Nobody wants what they have to be taken away from them, but there is something we said about like you can set up things so that they're available for everybody."
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Not everyone interviewed by Fox News Digital was entirely convinced of the idea of government seizure and redistribution of private property.
Jenny Sniderman said she doesn't want to give up her property to the government, but that it wasn't out of the question if she was paid to do so.
"Of course I don't want to give up my private property," she said. "Are they going to reimburse me fairly? That would be helpful in making my choice."
Steve Ney isn't in favor of his home being seized by the government, but he advocated for another socialist policy that recently was implemented in New York City by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
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"I think the idea of rent stabilization, for example, is an excellent idea where you limit the rate of increase in rent in order to help people stay in their homes," he said.
New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-1 in July to halt increases in rent for one and two year leases on rent-stabilized apartments, enacting a core promise from socialist Mamdani's agenda. The policy has faced legal challenges and backlash from property owners in the Big Apple.
Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) President James Whelan blasted Mamdani's effort.
"The mayor's report focuses on symptoms, not causes," he told Fox News Digital in August. "New Yorkers are paying record-high rents because there is not enough housing, and many of the reported conditions are concentrated in heavily rent-stabilized buildings that are facing significant operational and financial challenges."
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One Takoma Park Street Festival attendee, Nina Gilden Seavy, a self-identified historian, outrightly rejected the idea that the government should be involved of distributing resources.
"I think that's a ridiculous idea. I mean, that's, it's a fool's errand," she said.
"The idea that somehow we're gonna be better off if the government is in charge of allocating all resources that sounds not in any way desirable."
Fox News' Victoria Balara and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.