Who are the Democratic Socialists of America?
New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (Fair Use)
Essentially, the Democratic Socialists of America or DSA is an organized movement determined to tear down the American Capitalist system.
Like Marxism, it is a worker’s movement that doesn’t believe that making a profit should be the goal of business. Rather, it believes the workers should be running businesses and the entire country. The face of the movement is U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont whose latest failed presidential campaign helped swell the ranks of the DSA from about 6,000 members to 90,000.
What do they stand for other than shared misery?
They would kill the Electoral College and the Senate filibuster. They support government healthcare for all – essentially all the things Karl Marx stood for. The DSA is a big movement on college campuses, and in Congress where it’s known as The Squad.
The DSA has a new face: Zohran Mamdani, and he is likely the next mayor of New York City.
From all indications, Mamdani is a true believer. He has supported pretty much all of what the national DSA movement stands for, including defunding of the police. After the shooting in late July at a New York skyscraper that housed offices of the National Football League, Mamdani attempted to break away from past comments—but without much success.
Video: ‘Disgusting and disqualifying’: Zohran Mamdani blasted for vow to defund police
If he’s elected mayor of New York, Mamdani will likely replace Bernie Sanders as the unofficial leader of the DSA. His views, per Wikipedia, are quite extreme:
His campaign platform includes support for fare-free city buses; public child care; city-owned grocery stores; a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units; additional affordable housing units; comprehensive public safety reform; and a $30 minimum wage by 2030. Mamdani also supports tax increases on corporations and those earning above $1 million annually.
His idea for city-owned grocery stores has attracted a lot of attention, but mostly for its ignorance. Imagine your local bustling H-E-B or Safeway, and then conjure up a mental picture of what a grocery store might look like as run by government workers and without competition. And of course, Mamdani despises Israel; that’s a given for DSA members.
Video: Critics take aim at Zohran Mamdani’s plan for city-owned grocery stores
Mamdani is not alone in the world of politics.
There’s lot of little Bernies and Mamdanis around the country. Most big cities have to deal with it, especially if they are home to a large college campus. The antisemitic movement on Ivy League campuses like Columbia are driven by the DSA. To his credit, President Donald Trump has fought with Columbia and Harvard to try to end DSA-inspired racism.
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Then, there’s the Squad, with Austin providing one of the newer faces on the far-left caucus.
His name is Greg Casar, another true believer who served on the Austin City Council and seemed to have a lot a political sway there. He ran for Congress in an extremely left-wing district and quickly became the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Casar’s socialist credentials are quite impressive; he can stand with members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar and be right at home.
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Video: Ultra-left Greg Casar runs for Congress.
Speaking of the Austin City Council, a 10-1 affair with a Mayor (Kirk Watson) and ten single-member districts each with a far-left councilperson, the DSA is well represented.
Homelessness, climate change, and equity are right up there with city services such as police, fire, and EMS. During open-mic session, it often seems like all the people who sign up to speak are DSA members.
Video: DSA members at Austin City Council.
Like a lot of left-wing cities, Austin spends a buttload of money on left-wing causes like equity, and has a multi-million-dollar budget deficit.
What if Bernie Sanders had gotten elected President? What if Mamdani or Casar ever does?
I imagine that the left-wing elites in Washington, D.C. would do fine. But you and I would be putting our money (if we’re allowed to have any) in government banks that are shaky as hell, and buying rotten bananas from one of Mamdani’s government-owned grocery stores.
Here’s more of what the DSA believes, taken from its own website.
First, here’s their statement of who they are:
The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States because we’re a member-driven mass organization. We believe that working people should run both the economy and civil society, and we show our commitment to this principle by being an organization of, by, and for the working class.
Here’s what they think of the American Capitalist system:
Capitalism pits us against each other and workplaces are fundamentally authoritarian unless workers can self-organize and build collective power. This is why people build unions, and why employers undermine them. It is also why the capitalists as a class constantly promote narratives about unions that frame them as unnecessary, undemocratic, or ineffective. We know better, and we’re building worker power in every region of the country.
Their big priority is changing the weather:
The climate crisis is an emergency. The world’s top scientists are saying we have little time to get off fossil fuels. Meanwhile, inequality is already out of control — and rising. We fight for a Green New Deal because it’s the only plan that meets the scale of the crisis, one that puts people and planet over profit to build a more just and sustainable economy. We’re organizing in our workplaces, communities and schools to build the working class movement it will take to win.
As stated, they hate Israel as in this response to the Iron Dome vote:
Yesterday, the US Congress once again increased spending on war instead of the services and protections that working people desperately need. In a vote of 221 to 209, Congress approved H.R.4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, sending a staggering $831.5 billion to the Pentagon. This money will be used to fund militarism abroad…
They were, of course, elated with Mamdani’s win in New York:
In New York City, socialism has won. Time and again, the capitalist class have told working class New Yorkers that providing the basic necessities of affordable housing, efficient transit, and universal child care are not possible, and they should be grateful for the crumbs they do provide.
They are proud socialists. They do not hide what they are.
And yet, the misery that comes with socialist countries is rarely brought up by the sanest member of the Austin City Council, Mayor Kirk Watson. The mayor is a political veteran. He is a creature of the Left, but he’s not an out-and-out socialist. He knows better, and he ran on a platform of affordability – but yet the council spends like drunken Congressmen. With no conservative on the Council, it’s up to him to call out extremism. I think he knows that.
He’s probably aware that a lot of Austin’s problems stem from the years that Greg Casar was on the Council with a pliable mayor name Steve Adler. Joe Biden was a senile and pliable president and the people around him spent crazy amounts of money, caused inflation to skyrocket, opened the southern border, and made climate change a priority. Biden may not have been DSA, but a lot of what he did fell in line.
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Socialism is shared misery.
New York may be about to find out. Back when Rudolph Giuliani was Mayor, he cleaned up the crime and made the city livable. The Left trashes him now, but for a while he was America’s Mayor. Since his departure from that office, New York has regressed, and it will be far worse if Mamdani is elected. People are already leaving New York and swelling the state of Florida where Capitalism is still king and the people are free to innovate and excel.
The Left that worships equity may get it with Mamdani. The city will become miserable, because socialism is designed to create equity by bringing everyone down to the same level. Capitalism provides incentive to grow and be the best you can be. That’s not what the Left wants.
President Donald Trump is the ultimate capitalist.
Even as president, he sells watches and sneakers, and Bibles and what-have-you. He loves his skyscrapers and his golf courses. Joe Biden, on the other hand, never had a real job, but always lived off the taxpayers and (presumably) what Hunter forked over to the Big Guy while selling influence. I think Trump’s merchandising is a bad look, but I’ll take it any day over a socialist.
When that nutcase stormed into a New York skyscraper and killed four people including a New York policeman, Mamdani likely world have sent a social worker to the scene. The DSA has little use for police. Or Israel. Or making a profit. Or someone working hard to be the best he or she can be. Under Mamdani, Casar, or Bernie Sanders, we would all be equal like Harrison Bergeron in the Kurt Vonnegut story.
When everybody is made equal through government mandate, Mamdani and Casar may finally be happy. Just so long as they’re not forced to be as miserably equal as the rest of us.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based author, broadcaster, and songwriter. Follow his podcast at https://www.PlanetLogic.us. Check out his author’s page at https://www.Amazon.com/author/lynnwoolley.
Order books direct from Lynn at https://PlanetLogicPress.Square.Site. Email Lynn at lwoolley9189@gmail.com.
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