Current signs point to a Big Blue Wave that will flip Republican House and possibly even Senate seats to the Democrats. But the emergence of Democratic Socialism in the Democratic Party may minimize Republican losses this fall—if the Republicans purge themselves of right-wing radicals as well as develop more sophisticated ways to recognize and combat Democratic Socialism, its adherents, and their policies. A more moderately liberal Democratic Party, as well as a moderately conservative Republican Party, will be better for We the People and our political system.
The possible resumption of the war against Iran, the resulting inflation of energy prices, the continuing inflationary impact of tariffs, and the sinking of President Trump’s approval ratings (now in the 30s), will probably cause voters to replace many Republican representatives as well as some senators with Democrats. And, as I’ve written on several different occasions, a Democratic-controlled Congress will mean the end of Trump’s legislative agenda, the end of his ability to appoint judges and executive-branch officials, and the launching of Impeachment 3.0.
Enter Zohran Mamdani.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with the help of like-minded activists such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York City Congresswoman AOC, among others, has launched a drive to increase the number of Democratic Socialists nominated and elected to office across the country. Mamdani made nationwide news with his success in securing the nomination of 3 Democratic Socialist candidates for Congress in New York City (2 of whom defeated incumbent Democrats seeking new terms). Since then, a Democratic Socialist defeated an incumbent Democratic Congresswoman for renomination in Colorado, a Democratic Socialist has been nominated for Mayor of Washington, DC, and others have good chances of being nominated for statewide offices in Michigan and Wisconsin. And a Democratic Socialist will almost certainly be nominated to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for Senator from Maine.
All this is good news for the GOP: As the Democratic Party becomes more associated with Democratic Socialism, it and the candidates running under its label may well be perceived as too extreme for mainstream general election voters to support. Primary election voters, and especially those most likely to vote in runoffs too, tend to be more ideologically committed and support the nomination of candidates more likely to be ideologically liberal or conservative than general election voters might prefer. In general elections, voters are more likely to prefer the moderate conservative over the left-wing radical, and the moderate liberal over the right-wing radical. So the more Democratic Socialists whose nominations Mamdani, etc., can secure, the more Democratic Socialists whom the Republicans can defeat—maybe.
But to defeat Democratic Socialists, the Republicans must first of all make themselves “nut-proof.” It must rid itself of Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorists, and all the other right-wing riffraff which give the GOP a bad name and provide ammunition for those who would say that to elect Republicans is to elect right-wing radicals.
Furthermore, one must actually be able to distinguish Democratic Socialism from both Communism and Social Democracy. President Trump is being less than helpful, and may even be counterproductive, in accusing Democratic Socialists of being Communists. Democratic Socialists in general favor government ownership of the means of producing, pricing, and distributing goods and services. Democratic Socialists say they wish to do so by working within a democratic electoral system. They evidently want to achieve socialism as an end in itself.
Communists, however, see socialism, democratic or otherwise, as a mere stepping stone to the attainment of a truly communistic society, in which all private property, social classes, and governments themselves have been abolished, and everyone lives in theoretically self-governing communes. To achieve their version of paradise on earth, they also advocate and have practiced ways and means never advocated by Mamdani, Sanders, or AOC, including mass murder and slave labor camps to eliminate or otherwise control dissidents.
To tar Mamdani, Sanders, and AOC with the communist brush is the sort of overkill—the sort of “crying wolf—which diminishes the credibility of accusers while generating sympathy for the accused. Trump should stop it.
Distinguishing Democratic Socialism from Social Democracy is more difficult. Even Bernie Sanders seems confused on this point. He says when he advocates Democratic Socialism, he wants policies not based on the principles of Cuba or Venezuela—two obvious showcases for the failures of socialism—but on the underlying governing principles of Sweden. But Sweden is not socialistic. It’s a Social Democracy which recognizes the need for free market capitalism to generate the wealth which can then be taxed to support a generous welfare state. Recently, a former prime minister of another Social Democracy—Denmark—complained about the tendency to confuse Social Democracy with Democratic Socialism, saying that to call Denmark socialistic is to risk alienating business, which might otherwise want to invest there.
The best way to understand what Democratic Socialists advocate is to Google “Democratic Socialists of America” to access their website, where, with admirable candor and clarity, many policy and program proposals are outlined. Not everyone claiming to be a Democratic Socialist believes in every program advocated at the DSA website, and not every proposed program is bad. For example, the DSA favors the elimination of the Electoral College and the election of the president by direct popular vote—a widely supported proposed constitutional change and hardly socialistic at all.
But several criticisms can be leveled at other DSA proposals. For example, some proposed programs would cost too much money. Examples include the Green New Deal; Medicare for All, “free” college and university attendance, with government paying all tuition and fees; “free” housing or at least severe rent control; “free” public transportation; government-run grocery stores, etc. Other proposals include eliminating ICE and opening borders to everyone, defunding or at least sharply reducing defense expenditures, and eliminating prisons. And while most DSA proposals may be well-meaning and benign in principle, no matter how impractical or costly they may be in practice, many who self-identify as Democratic Socialists are devoutly anti-Israel and pro-Hamas, thereby matching in virulence the anti-Semitism of the radical right.
The greater the degree to which Democrats advocate for Democratic Socialism, the greater the ease with which Republicans will be able to score much-needed victories this fall and thereby reduce the potential damage of the Big Blue Wave that may be coming their way.
So it’s in the best interests of the Democratic Party for its more moderate members to temper and minimize the rise of the Democratic Socialists.
And it’s in the best interests of the American political system and its citizens as well. We the people can best be served by two political parties, one moderately conservative and one moderately liberal, with activists who not only strive to advance their own views but who, when possible, recognize the fundamental patriotism and goodwill of their opponents, and strive to find common ground on which they can fashion policies for the best interests of the country. But should each party be dominated or otherwise unduly influenced by its respective crazies—believers in white supremacy, Holocaust denial, neo-Nazism within the GOP; the more extravagant, impractical, or anti-Semitic elements within the Democratic Party—the two parties will tear each other and the country apart. Whichever party wins and rules the ruins, We the People will lose.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville since 1987 and taught politics and government at Tarleton for 36 years, retiring in 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990-2024). He was Mayor pro-tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Stephenville Economic Development Authority since 2018, and as chair of the Erath County Appraisal District’s Appraisal Review Board since 2015. He is also a member of the Stephenville Rotary Club, the Board of Vestry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts’ Pecan Valley District. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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