Democratic socialists are now undeniably part of the Democratic Party. They are, because their victories are no longer one-off occurrences. They are, because their victories are no longer only happening in deep blue jurisdictions. Most important, they are because the Democratic Party refuses to disavow them.
Abdul El-Sayd’s win in Michigan’s Senate primary marked yet another milestone in democratic socialists’ advance into the Democratic Party. This was a win in a presidential swing state, a state that Democrats have not won the presidency without since 1976. It was a state where Democrats spent over $70 million to defeat El-Sayed. It was a state where the party establishment lined up behind Rep. Haley Stevens to beat El-Sayed.
Despite all this, El-Sayd won with the endorsement of the leading democratic socialists and their fellow-travelers. He won with the backing of the DSA. And he did not win alone: Progressives also won the Democrats’ nomination in the state’s 7th and 13th (defeating incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar) congressional districts.
When Democrats’ dalliance with democratic socialists began, it was with Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He was an eccentric, and his self-labeling only added to what some Democrats saw as a cross between quixotic and radical chic. Sanders was an indulgence, a guilty pleasure. What could one hurt?
In 2018, the Squad were ingenue insurrectionists. The usual suspects from the usual places — New York, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston. They were more Mod Squad than Communards. More would follow.
Last year brought Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson. Two peas in the same progressive pod. Both from the coasts’ epicenters of eccentricity, New York and Seattle. It was impossible to not see the pattern: there had always been loci for lunatics.
Then just months ago came two more “DSAers” from New York. We had seen it before in 2018, when AOC had beaten longtime incumbent Joe Crowley (NY-14). The progressive plague’s virulence was still growing and its cadence quickening, but it was localized in deep-blue areas where anything could happen.
The democratic socialists remained explicable, if not excusable.
Then, everything changed. Backed by Bernie Sanders and AOC, Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan. Suddenly, the contagion had mutated. DSA radicalism was no longer just infecting the usual places. Now heretofore immune locales were vulnerable.
What Democrats and the establishment media have been trying to first ignore, then second, deny, is no longer possible. The DSA is rampant within the Democratic Party. An outbreak can now occur anywhere, and, wherever it does, Democrats are susceptible. Democratic socialism’s St. Vitus Dance is causing Democrats to gyrate to the left throughout the party.
There is no longer any denying. It can happen anywhere because it’s now happening everywhere. Michigan went for Trump. It’s a swing state. It’s a state Democrats need to win the presidency and the Senate. Yet what carried sway in this crucial state? Democratic socialist endorsements.
Democratic socialists aren’t just Greenwich Village “Guevaras” copping a pose among Democrats — mere shock value more than shock troops. They aren’t aberrations and anomalies; they are now Democratic mainstream. They are becoming the Democratic Party.
El Sayed and his reprehensible views and radical policies sold in Michigan’s Democratic primary. And if so there, then they can — and soon will — anywhere.
Hasan Piker has supporters throughout Democratic circles — including El-Sayed. Polling shows 66 percent of Democrats view socialism positively, compared to 38 percent of Independents and 14 percent of Republicans.
The party that so fervently believes individuals self-determine who they are cannot say that these democratic socialists aren’t Democrats. The fundamental reason they can’t is because they won’t.
Of course, they could. Some Democrats are edging up to this: James Carville and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) are apparently on the brink of taking the plunge. Undoubtedly, there are others.
But where is the party’s leadership? This mutual assimilation of Democrats and democratic socialists is by mutual consent. Both are damming to Democrats.
Democratic socialists would not be flocking to, competing in, and winning nominations for the Democratic Party if they did not feel comfortable there: If the Democratic Party’s values and policies didn’t align with their own. And democratic socialists couldn’t be entering the Democratic Party if the party wasn’t making them welcome.
At any point, the party’s leaders could be speaking out against, and attempting to chase out, the democratic socialists. Where are the voices of Bill and Hillary Clinton? Of Obama? Of Biden? Of Al Gore? Of Kerry? Of Harris? Of any of the party’s official leadership? No one is standing up to throw the DSA and its acolytes out.
The only conclusions are that Democrats are either comfortable with the rising number of democratic socialists in their midst and their increasing representation of the party, or that they are too afraid to act because Democrats’ support for them is already too strong. The other is the result: Democratic socialists are now part and parcel of this party.
J.T. Young is the author of the recent book, "Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left" from RealClear Publishing. Follow him on Substack.