Beware the Democrats’ dangerous embrace of socialism

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral primary victory is the Democrats’ latest lurch toward socialism. It is hardly new or rare. Over the last decade, Democrats’ have in fact gone from flirting with socialism to openly courting it.

There was a time, not long ago, when Democrats avoided even being labeled “liberals.” Being so branded meant being defeated in any national election. This problem inspired former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis to climb into a tank and try to drive away from the Massachusetts stereotype.

No more. Both Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) backed Mamdani.

“Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “We need to get very real about that.” 

Very real, indeed. “Che’ chic” is all the rage in Demo-land. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement reminds that the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. Ocasio-Cortez said that her past with the Democratic Socialists of America “very much shaped my organizing strategy.”

“What initially drew me to [the Democratic Socialists of America] was the fact that they showed up everywhere that I showed up,” she added.

Don’t let Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez fool you. The Democrats’ flirtation with socialism has been going on for at least a decade.

In the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, Sanders — who has, for decades, walked on “the path that I call democratic socialism” — took Hillary Clinton the distance. He was the energy; she was the establishment.

The establishment won that battle by stacking the deck with establishment super delegates, only to lose the war to Trump in November and, within the party over the next four years, to Sanders’s radicalism.

In 2018, the Squad was elected. Among these far-left, four progressive women in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez was joined by fellow democratic socialist Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). 

Tlaib said her membership in the Democratic Socialists of America “helps me have an organization and people to lean on. It’s important to have that kind of partnership.”

To drive House Democrats even further left was like pushing on an open door, and that’s just what the Squad did. By 2020, virtually the Democrats’ entire presidential field was running in the space Sanders had held alone in 2016.

Instead of social distancing, they went for socialist proximity. And those who thought such closeness ill-advised heard the boos that rained down on former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) in San Francisco in 2019 when he dared to tell the party faithful the truth: “Socialism is not the answer.”

With each far-left candidate who dropped from the Democrats’ overcrowded, left-dominated, 2020 field, they pulled the party’s default pick, Joe Biden, further in their direction. Biden capped his nomination with obeisance, choosing Kamala Harris, whose own agenda four years later would reflect the Democratic Socialists of America’s priorities, as his running mate. 

Never popular with the Democrats’ far-left wing, Biden had to continue ingratiating himself to them once in office. 

As his net popularity declined due in large part to following their extremist policies (to minus-15.7 percentage points by 2024), Biden became ever more dependent on the Democrats’ far left. In return, the far left’s demands became ever more insistent.

One thing democrat socialists were not insistent on was Biden’s removal from atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket. Despite a growing chorus calling for Biden to step down, both Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders were conspicuous for their silence, for the simple reason that they had gotten everything they could have asked for from the Biden administration.

Now, following Trump’s 2024 victory, who are the biggest draws among Democrats? It’s the Ocasio-Cortez/Sanders “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that draws the biggest crowds, biggest energy, and most gushing reviews among Democrats.

The Democrats’ move to the left is nothing new. In just over a generation the party has gone from having 25 percent liberal membership to 54 percent. But their leftward move is much further than most Democrats want to publicly admit. 

Democrats’ flirtation with socialism is not an emerging development. What’s new is the Democrats’ increasingly firm, and public, embrace. A 2020 poll found that over three-quarters of Democrats admitted their willingness to vote for a socialist as their party’s presidential nominee. 

Never has the Democrats’ attachment to socialism been more pronounced. Never has it been more dangerous. 

Unquestionably, this applies for America. The Democratic Socialists of America’s website states, “we want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives.” But it also applies for a Democratic Party that is becoming more radicalized and removed from mainstream American politics by the day. 

J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, “Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left” from RealClear Publishing and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, the Department of Treasury, the Office of Management, and Budget, and representing a Fortune 20 company.