This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. We are running a series of articles on progressive victories that came out of the 2020 election at the state and local level.
“They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
So they’re incredibly effective, huh?
Doubling, yep, two to four. Lock your doors, the socialists are coming for you. This article could have used the term progressive or liberal, but, oh no had to use something more inflammatory.
What freaks low-informantion folks is that the Russians called themselves a “socialist republic”.
But Europeans have been more aware of the nuances of the word “socialism” for years.
DSA are just liberal Democrats trying to get cred and keep people dissatisfied with capitalism within its political framework by using Marxist terminology. In fact, its progenitors were active on behalf of and were funded by the CIA against the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s. For this work, they eventually got the name “CIA Socialists,” after having been exposed by articles in the Washington Post. Today, they support the Democratic and Republican campaign against China, which has the ultimate aim of overthrowing the Chinese Revolution and returning it to the days that it was under the thumb of imperialist (capitalist) powers.
The author of this article, Peter Drier, just plain out lies when he says there wasn’t much of a socialist movement in the 1960s and plays up the role of Michael Harrington. In fact, there were a quite a few active ostensible and actual socialist organizations that played major if not central roles in the Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam war and other movements of the period, including organizing large scale national marches and demonstrations. What highlighted the radical and socialist activism of the mid 1960s on was widespread rejection of the liberal politics of DSA’s youth organization predecessor, which had founded the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and was essentially just fronting for the Democratic Party and conservative sell-out approach of the American labor (AFL-CIO) bureaucracy (they ended up quitting SDS in the mid ‘60s, after being voted out of leadership).
“especially young people”
Will and should be our saviors on a lot fronts in the future.
Exactly. If it’s not them our country’s in more serious trouble than we know, and we all know it’s in a serious situation. I’m an old fart, but I’ll support any efforts of our young people to make our country a better place to live.
Do you think the “Cafe” has been taken over by the Jacobins. I assure you there are very few “socialists” in the Bronx.
I’m just adding my voice to what others have said down-discussion. The Democratic Socialists are not socialists. I’m a socialist. These guys aren’t. They basically believe in capitalism, etc, and all of the things that we’ve come to associate with FDR molded Democrats. If you call this lot socialist, then you have to call FDR a socialist, because no Democratic Socialist is proposing anything other than what FDR might have done. I think this is very important to get right, as Republicans going forward will scream and pound quite loudly about the socialist menace as the DS’s gain traction. Yes, they’ll do that anyway, but we shouldn’t help them along with their future narrative.
You know what the problem is with democratic socialists? They have no sense of branding whatsoever.
If you have really, really good policies that have widespread public support and you’re trying to promote and get them enacted into law, it’s best not to label yourselves the Democratic Nazis of America.
Democratic Socialists are social democrats, a political movement that advances rigorous redistribution of wealth through tax policy in capitalist countries. It does not advocate socialist revolution to overthrow property relations.
Kahana Sawant is an actual socialist, twice elected and now facing a recall as a result of actions taken during the Seattle anti-racism protests this past summer.
Just because the fascists deem it a bad word, we don’t have to take the bait. It’s a perfectly fine word to a Scandinavian or Canadian who is perfectly okay with “Democratic Socialism”
They call themselves Socialists. Is it only inflammatory when people refer to them as what they refer to themselves?
That might not matter as much as it once would have. The Republicans call anyone who isn’t a Republican a socialist. We now have Democratic Socialists in enough offices that they’re developing a history and so people can now form opinions based on what they’ve actually done. If people continue to like what they’re seeing, that will matter more than the branding. In fact, I say it’s okay because now people can see that socialism is not the frightening monster under the bed everyone once thought it was (even though this group isn’t socialist). We’ll have the Republican’s authoritairan knee jerk tendency to label anyone not them an enemy to thank for that.
I actually don’t object to the word, and probably pretty much lean that way but to mainstream folks it’s right up there with communism.
Sixty-one DSA members will be serving in local and county government offices come January, as well. They range from planning commissions and town councils in small towns to city council members and law enforcement officials in some large counties and municipalities, including New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Knoxville, Austin, Houston, New Haven, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
This article seems deeply misleading to me. Doubly your presence on a Federal level is good; 2 to 4 isn’t. These sound like large metro. cities. I’m not seeing where there’s a growing demand for DSA’s policies that differ greatly from traditional Dems.
Because it fucking well works! That’s precisely why DSA are such shitty branders.
You’re right. It does work! It works in the same way that Trump’s brand of bullying everyone in an over the top manner works. The trick is to overwhelm the opponent into giving up because the alternative is just too much work. That’s what happens whenever the Republicans scream that Defund the Police is going to leave us at the mercy of crime and we’ll descend into anarchy, yada yada yada. What I’m saying is that they use this bully shtick so much that distinctions between words become meaningless. We can call ourselves Re+publicans and we’re still “The Socialists!!” The titles don’t matter a fig except as a flag to the faithful, giving them a target to attack. We have an opportunity here to take back the brands. How bad is socialism compared to fascism, after all? The Republicans clearly see fascism as preferable, as that word does not have the stigma ‘socialist’ has. One last thing; whatever we decide is the best route. We should not have to be on the defensive. If we’re the “Fuchsia Boa Silly Party” then we own that and strut proudly through the streets, acting like everyone else is a fool if they don’t see how awesome we are. That’s how Republicans do it, and we let them have their way.
Facts are inflammatory. Science is inflammatory.
Wake me when I should care.
The Democratic Socialists gained seats in Congress.
The Democrats lost seats, against Trump’s Republican Party.
Just sayin’.