Democratic socialism rattles both parties

Despite what you may hear from the president, the rise of democratic socialism is a far cry from the “godless communists” he claims are taking over the Democratic Party.

Donald Trump would have you believe Karl Marx is on the ballot. But today’s socialists are not the old school communists who demanded state ownership of everything. Historically, socialists have sought collective control of major means of production — such as factories, steel mills, power plants, and natural resources. Democratic socialism differs from straight-up socialism because it includes democratic principles like voting.

In our time and place, Republicans’ cult-like behavior has swung the political pendulum so far to the right they can be called autocratic or worse. Some Democratic voters, desperate to find an alternative, are going further to the left with democratic socialism.

In steps Trump, the master of fear-mongering. He can’t stop talking about the “Communist threat” and calling democratic socialists “animals.”

“I think it’s the biggest threat to our nation there is, maybe since our founding. That includes World War I, World War II, September 11th, it includes the Pearl Harbor attack,” Trump said with his trademark hyperbole.

The Republican Party has been selling fear for as long as I can remember.

In the 1950s it was Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt and the first Red Scare. Then Richard Nixon frightened white voters with his “Southern Strategy,” condemning advancements in civil rights.

When Ronald Reagan became president, he built political advantage on people’s concerns about a second Red Scare, which allowed him to up the Pentagon’s budget to counter what there was of a real Soviet threat.

Then there was George H.W. Bush and Willie Horton. In 1988, the Bush campaign released a misleading ad depicting Bush’s opponent, Governor Michael Dukakis, as soft on crime. Horton, a convicted murderer, escaped while on furlough and went on to commit more crimes.

Republicans have known for a long time that fear sells, which is why the recent primary wins by a handful of democratic socialists is red meat for the right. And they are gleefully spreading the word.

“You can call it the Bolshevik Revolution of 2026,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said with a smirk last week. Let’s hope he isn’t teaching civics anytime soon.

The Republican National Committee is so confident the surging democratic socialists will mean losses for Democrats nationally, they sent a condolence card and flowers to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

But the wins may not be the political kryptonite Republicans are hoping for. First, let’s clear something up: Communism and democratic socialism are not the same thing.

Communism is a form of government popularized by Marx, in which a violent revolution by the working class seizes the means of production. Communal self-governance is the stated goal.

The former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, among other countries, attempted to adopt this type of modern communism. In practice, these countries have turned away from the ideals of Marx’s manifesto. The regimes are now one-party systems that completely control the public and private lives of their citizens.

The ideals of pure communism have never been achieved. We can leave the why to political theorists, but that doesn’t stop Republicans from trying to paint the Democrats with a red brush.

Democratic socialists are a subset of Democrats. When they run for office they usually run as both. Defining democratic socialism can be a challenge, which helps Republicans hoping to cast it in a bad light.

“It’s a very ambiguous term, and there’s a great deal of confusion about what it is and isn’t,” Marc Farinella, a senior advisor to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, told TIME Magazine. He says the definition has shifted over time, as have their policy goals, with some moderation.

According to the Democratic Socialists of America website, democratic socialism aims to move power from big corporations and billionaires into the hands of the majority of Americans who are not wealthy. They believe capitalism, as it is now practiced, is corrupt and shot through with cronyism.

Using the democratic process, most importantly through voting, they want to replace capitalism with an economy driven by social needs rather than profits. That’s the theory. Will it ever be adopted in the United States as a whole? Who can say. But at present it does not seem likely.

A version of what is already seen in parts of Europe and elsewhere is catching on in parts of the U.S. It includes universal healthcare, free higher education, raising the minimum wage, replacing fossil fuels with green energy, and paid family leave. You could find any number of these ideas on the websites of Democrats, even moderate ones.

However, the Democratic Socialists’ core platform also aims to eliminate the Electoral College, restructure the Senate, expand the House, close local jails, open U.S. borders, give legal status to all undocumented immigrants, demilitarize the police, and drastically cut military spending.

Even with these far-left policy stances, democratic socialists are making headlines for recent wins. Last week, all three congressional candidates endorsed by popular New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is a democratic socialist, won their primaries. Two of them unseated long-standing incumbents.

Some pundits believed the democratic socialist wins would be confined to deep-blue New York City. Not so.

In Tuesday’s congressional primary in Denver, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, beat 15-term incumbent Rep. Diane DeGette. Kiros was not even born when DeGette was first elected.

“If we share the same goal of delivering affordable health care to Americans, of delivering affordable housing to Americans, then I think it’s worthwhile to have that conversation and have that debate about what’s the best course of action to get that done. That’s what a Democracy is supposed to look like,” Kiros told 9News.

In Washington D.C., Janeese Lewis George won the primary to be the city’s next mayor. Trump wasted no time attacking her. He said he would not let D.C. “be destroyed by a Communist adherent” on social media.

All of these candidates won in heavily Democratic districts, so they will be favored to win the seats in November.

At a time when approval of Congress is sitting just above single digits, Republicans are considered enablers of an autocrat, and Democrats are called “weak” and “ineffective.” Many people are looking for an alternative. Right now, democratic socialists are one option because they are considered outsiders. In addition, their young, energetic, multicultural candidates appeal to people who are sick of the establishment getting richer while they struggle to make ends meet.

Democratic socialism, certainly to the left of many mainstream Democrats, is gaining in some appeal for an electorate that sees the gulf between the haves and have-nots growing every day. Some of what we are seeing is a reaction to the MAGA agenda. Historically, when politics swings one way, in this case to the right, it is common for there to be a pendulum swing in the other direction.

Among younger voters, Millennials and Gen Z, democratic socialists are doing better than with older voters. For these younger voters, the idea of a true communist threat was something they may have learned in history class or just heard mentioned by parents or grandparents. They don’t remember McCarthyism, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Cold War.

Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, believes Republicans and Democrats both need to wake up and recognize the political shift that democratic socialism represents. “People don’t understand that they’ve taken — really, the Obama playbook, and the Trump playbook. Modern politics shows you it’s not about the money. It’s about voter engagement by people, one on one. They have momentum because they engage people with their message,” he told POLITICO.

Many credit Mamdani’s win last November in New York City to his enviable ground game. He had more than 100,000 volunteers knocking on doors, making calls, and getting out his anti-establishment message.

As we near our country’s 250th birthday, the electorate is exhausted and disillusioned. They are looking for real change and fresh voices. It is a testament to the failure of both political parties that we are trying to find something, anything, that will help everyday Americans get ahead. For many voters too young to remember, socialism is just a word, not a danger.

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Stay Steady,
Dan