Democratic Socialists Threaten Democratic Victory in November
Most political tea-leaf-readers predict a wave election for Democrats in November. The result would be a House controlled by Democrats with Senate control a strong possibility.
Enter the new guys on the block: the Democratic Socialists of America, founded in 1982 by Michael Harrington (www.dsausa.org). History dictates that understanding (and resisting) DSA, as with any political movement, requires learning what they are saying. You have to read their positions on what they want for America.
In opposing this movement the simple, but essential, act of mastering information widely circulated by DSA about itself is terrifying. DSA is open about what they want to do. In short, Karl Marx way be listed as their “of counsel.” Example: DSA wants to get rid of the Senate and put the Congress in control of everything thus doing away with three co-equal branches of government and checks and balances. They are communists. Read it folks!
DSA is at this juncture because its members or adherents have won Democratic primaries and are official candidates of the Democratic Party in November. True, their candidacies are in districts that always go Democratic anyway, so considering them when in office is appropriate.
In New York, DSA has supported three congressional candidates, one of whom denies that he adheres to DSA and is not a member. They won their primaries through the support of our charming and politically powerful Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
I confess that when it became clear that Mamdani was going to be our new Mayor, I wrote in these blogs that New Yorkers should accept the fact of his victory even though his views were anathema.
I was wrong.
We should have resisted then and we must resist now. While there is no Democratic or Republican way to clean the streets and it appears that city services are being furnished, the Mayor is also a symbol.
His dumb stunt of announcing the arrest of Bibi Netanyahu when Bibi comes to New York for the U.N. General Assembly this Fall pursuant to a warrant of the International Criminal Court ( which the United States does not recognize) was the classical knee-jerk action of a jerk. The threat was quickly withdrawn. (Mamdani better watch his tush with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a superb public servant, when he invokes the use of NYPD without her buy-in. He needs her as we all do.)
Will DSA threaten Democratic election victory because of its repugnant positions. As wisely said by my friend TZ, “it won’t be enough” to stop the wave.
Our journalists and editorial writers, together with TV cable news assignment editors, should avoid Mamdani unless the Brooklyn Bridge falls into the East River when his relevance is manifest.