Socialism is on the rise on the left, and many are looking for someone to blame. Let me be exceptionally clear: the rise of this deadly ideology is entirely homegrown, even as rumors circulate that the shift is somehow driven by immigration.
According to data from the Pew Research Center, the shift is driven primarily by highly educated white people, in other words, the typical demographic of your champagne socialist. Forty percent of white Democrats, along with 30 percent of Asian Democrats, view socialism positively. By contrast, the racial demographic groups most often invoked in the immigration debate, Black and Hispanic voters, are far less likely to hold a favorable view. Among Black Democrats, only 21 percent view socialism favorably; among Hispanic Democrats, the number is just 20 percent. The vast majority remain undecided.
Further data analysis shows that support for socialism is also driven primarily by younger people, those aged 18 to 39, and that the higher a person's income, the more likely they are to be supportive of the ideology.
This pattern is consistent with voter data from New York City's congressional primaries, where three Democratic socialist candidates beat establishment Democrats. There, the pattern was similar: white, wealthier, more highly educated voters led the charge for the insurgent candidates, while many working-class and minority precincts weren't so cut and dry.
Darializa Chevalier lost the Bronx part of the district by 30 points. She also lost predominantly Black and Hispanic areas, and she lost lower income areas by 10 points. She won with young voters and higher income voters, and won majority college educated areas by 20 points. https://t.co/brFok94vge pic.twitter.com/2O0Zks9O3h
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) June 24, 2026
The DSA: We’re rich, we’re white, and we know what’s best for you! pic.twitter.com/0Xn7K1zduv
— usurp tha chef (@usurpthachef) June 24, 2026
Now, why does this distinction matter at all?
It matters because if we fail to correctly identify the problem, we'll spend our energy fighting the wrong group and get no closer to actually winning the fight against the rise of socialism. The data points to socialism being a homegrown issue, and that is significantly harder to deal with than if it were driven by immigration. If it were the latter, the solution would be simple: deportations and stricter immigration laws. But that's not the case. This problem has to be addressed through a mix of education reform, political rhetoric, commentary, and cultural pushback. It instantly becomes a far more multifaceted fight.
As much as conservatives wish Americans would never fall for the lure of socialism, they very much have, only 34 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. This points to a massive systemic failure, not just of American education, but of American politics itself, where free-market advocates let dogma substitute for genuine arguments, and repeatedly ceded ground to those who attack corporations, accuse businesses of price gouging, and even flirt with the idea that government could be the solution to every issue of economics. None of these claims have ever been true. Nor will they ever be.
This is not a foreign contagion we can quarantine at the border. It is a fire we lit ourselves, and it will not be extinguished by immigration policy, deportation, or a wall. It will only be extinguished the way it started, from within. We built this. We have to be the ones to fix it.