Democratic Socialism and Its Inapplicability
The continued primary wins of
Democratic Socialists as well as far-right candidates reflect a flaw in our
primary system. Many people don’t vote in primaries, and those who do are often
motivated by a specific candidate, often one on the fringe. Our primary system
favors fringe candidates, and so we often get candidates that reflect a
distorted reality. Far-left or far-right candidates are often supported by
small minorities. On the left, I would estimate that somewhere between 10 and
15%, and likely closer to 10%, and hopefully less, of Democrats actually favor
Democratic Socialists. Of course, this varies by state and region. Since our
primary system favors fringe candidates, it also disfavors centrist or moderate
candidates, the most likely ones to forge the compromises necessary for good
government.
The idea of socialism, of
course, derives from Marxism and is associated with failed states, oppressive
states, poor human rights records, massive corruption, and brutal regimes like
the Soviet Union. Thus, it is difficult for many of us to see how so many can
put those facts aside to endorse socialism as some kind of doctrine that
fosters fairness, equality, and functionality. They often conflate social
welfare with socialism. They often cite Scandinavian social democracies, which
are really quite capitalist, but also benefit from sovereign wealth funds. In
Norway’s case, its sovereign wealth fund was built by its oil and gas wealth.
It is a petro-state that favors a good degree of social welfare.
Government-owned and
government-run institutions are a feature of socialist and capitalist
countries, including the U.S. Ideas like socialized medicine, or rather,
universal health care, are often touted as socialist but are really just areas
where government involvement can assure wider availability and affordability
for the poor. Democratic socialists favor universal health care in some form,
as do I, many other Democrats, and some Republicans. It really has nothing to
do with socialism. These notions are often put forth to make socialism seem
benign and acceptable.
Others, especially those from
former Soviet Republics in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, are much more
critical of socialism since they know what it’s like living under Soviet
tyranny. Consider the following quotes of someone who lived under socialism in
the Soviet Republic of Georgia and his father’s grueling oppression under it.
“But socialism, in practice, does not work without force
and brutality, even if you give it nice adjectives like “democratic.” Socialism
is not really a policy or an economic system. It is not Scandinavia. It is a
machine whose only function is to destroy anyone sufficiently capable,
principled or stubborn enough to threaten those who operate it. It does this
legally, bureaucratically and, when necessary, with bullets.”
“And even when socialism finally and thankfully
disappears, it has a distinctive habit of leaving behind impoverished,
authoritarian basket-case countries with decades of problems to sort out.”
“In 1988, the same year my father was secretly listening
to Radio Free Europe (Soviet law classified this as a crime), Bernie Sanders
sat bare-chested in a Soviet banya, wrapped only in a towel, singing with his
Soviet hosts over vodka toasts. He later called it “a very strange honeymoon.”
His hosts knew exactly what to show him and what to hide from him.”
“My father knew what was being hidden. He had lived
inside it.”
In a Fox News segment, Julian
Epstein notes that:
“Socialism is basically the idea that if you’re not
happy with things, it’s the system’s fault and the government will bail you out.”
Certainly, capitalism is the
‘scapegoat’ used over and over by socialists. With them, blaming everything on
capitalism is commonplace. Epstein decried what he says is the Democratic
Party’s movement toward extreme candidates. While some may disagree, there is
evidence. A current Democratic Socialist Congressional candidate and
Muslim-convert, endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Darializa
Avila Chevalier, has been associated with:
“…thousands of posts and reposts expressing support for
abolishing police, prisons and borders, as well as seizing private property and
nationalizing major industries and calling into question Israel’s right to
exist.”
Although she backtracked and
deleted her old Twitter account, saying that those views don’t reflect her
views today, she is widely known to have such views, including the common
socialist slogan to “seize the means of production.”
We have had Bernie Sanders
for many years, and AOC and a few others, fringe politicians with influence in
certain places, but Mamdani as mayor of New York is perhaps the first occasion
in America of a Democratic Socialist with significant executive power. Mamdani
promised in his inaugural address to introduce New Yorkers to “the warmth of
collectivism.” Mamdani recently announced a plan to transfer properties to
tenants and non-profit groups, citing bad landlords. According to Jonathan
Turley, in an opinion piece for The Hill:
“Mamdani faced criticism for his appointment of Cea
Weaver as the new director of the Office to Protect Tenants. She previously
called for efforts to “impoverish the white middle-class” and called
homeownership “racist” while demanding the seizure of private property.”
“Videos of Weaver echoed thread-worn socialist mantras
that are the signature of the Mamdani Administration. “I think the reality is,
that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and
not a collective good,” she said. “And transitioning to treating it as a
collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think
about it differently and it will mean that families — especially white
families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well — are going to have
a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”
“Weaver famously tweeted out her beliefs about private
property, which are apparently widely shared in the Mamdani administration:
“Private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon
of White supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
Mamdani’s effort to develop
city-run grocery stores is also being revealed as a likely boondoggle:
“His grocery stores show the same economic sleight of
hand. The city is planning to spend $30 million to create the first store —
four times what such stores normally cost. On top of that cost, it was
discovered that the city had already appropriated $25 million for the
improvement of the site. That is $55 million for a site that will not go on the
market for the highest bidders, but rather be operated by the city at a loss.”
It has also been pointed out
that the current grocery stores in these areas may have trouble competing with
the heavily subsidized city-owned stores. It will certainly distort the market.
A recent article in the New
York Post highlights the DSA’s development of its “community defense”
initiative, called the Red Rabbits Security Commission, which seeks to have an
expanded role in street protests and direct-action organizing. Now, I think
it’s fine if someone wants to protest against the overarching actions of ICE,
for instance, but if we have organized political factions with much broader
goals against our current political system setting the terms of protests, that
is a recipe for disaster. The group was previously called the National
Vigilance Committee but changed due to the negative connotations of
vigilantism. Previous members have praised political revolutionary violence.
Current interests include:
“…martial-arts sparring, evacuation planning,
wound-packing, radio communications, the use of umbrellas and signs to shield
participants from and block “fascists,” and even chemical-exposure training, in
which participants practiced being pepper-sprayed.”
Some local DSA groups work
with:
“…the Party for Socialism and Liberation — a would-be
revolutionary political party with close ties to the Communist Party of China.
Portland DSA cited its work with the National Lawyers Guild — a left-wing legal
group with historic ties to the Soviet Union — to provide know-your-rights
trainings.”
Yuck!
The article goes on to
suggest that such activities could endanger the DSA’s designation as a
501(c)(4) social welfare organization.
“Some Red Rabbits activities, like know-your-rights
education and de-escalation training, probably meet that threshold. But it’s
hard to argue that a street-level security force geared toward disruption,
confrontation, and resistance to law enforcement exists primarily to “further
the common good.”
“Tactics such as blocking traffic with bicycles,
training activists to escape physical holds, forming umbrella phalanxes to
confront “fascists” and conducting “takedowns on intersections” bear little
resemblance to traditional social-welfare activities.”
“Instead, they suggest preparation for a broader
“national uprising” — one of the organization’s stated directives.”
The Importance of Private Property
Private property is simply
ownership by a non-governmental entity, whether a person, a group of people, or
a corporation. Of course, governments also have a stake in private property
through taxation, or property taxes. According to Wikipedia, there are four
types of property taxes:
“The four broad types of property taxes are land,
improvements to land (immovable human-made objects, such as buildings),
personal property (movable human-made objects), and intangible property.”
Wikipedia also explains how
socialists generally regard private property:
“Socialist economists are critical of private property
in the means of production, as socialism aims to replace it with social
ownership or public property. Socialists generally argue that private property
relations limit the development of productive forces once production becomes
increasingly collective, and some socialist theories maintain that economic
functions traditionally performed by capitalists could be carried out through
collective or social ownership. Socialists generally favor social ownership either
to eliminate class distinctions between owners and workers or as a component of
the development of a post-capitalist economic system.”
We know that economic
freedom, which is girded by private property rights, leads to prosperity.
Countries with adequate economic freedom have higher economic productivity and
exhibit more efficient use of resources. Private property rights also support
social cohesion, especially since there is no fear of the government seizing
property.
Below, it is explained how
private property rights provide the basis for economic development.
When Hugo Chavez was elected
in Venezuela in 1998, his Bolivarian socialist government seized wealthy
estates, redistributed wealth, and seized and nationalized companies, including
the oil companies that had previously made it the wealthiest country in South
America. It went from there to the country with the second least economic
freedom by 2018, second only to the North Korean brutal dictatorship. It
essentially became a failed state with hyperinflation, mass corruption, and
starving people, which led to mass migration out of the country.
Another New York Post article
explores Bernie Sanders’ call to nationalize half of the AI industry. Bernie
had previously called for a national ban on AI data centers. A few Progressive
states, like New York, have enacted state bans. The Post’s response to Bernie’s
proposal notes:
“It has zero chance of passing even a Democratic
Congress; it’s blatantly unconstitutional; it’s economic suicide — and it’s
fundamentally tyrannical.”
While Trump has taken a small
but significant government stake in a few companies, raising eyebrows, it falls
short of the seizure of private property. The Post decries collectivism and
continues:
“That collectivism brings oppression and ruin everywhere
it’s tried — but then Sanders has been a fan of every nation that’s
impoverished itself this way, from the Soviet Union to Castro’s Cuba to
Chavez’s Venezuela.”
Bernie was originally
impressed by the collectivist kibbutz system he participated in in Israel and
its purported communist origins. He honeymooned in Moscow, and after Chavez was
elected in Venezuela, when it still had oil wealth before the Chavismo
government ruined it, he hailed it as the great success of South America. Under
socialism, it became the exact opposite. The Post expressed dismay that there
is not more backlash against Bernie’s ideas, which they call “monstrous.” I
agree that we need to denounce such ideas strongly. I agree that it is a very
bad look for the Democratic Party to support such nonsense.
In a twist for this post,
there is a situation in New York City where seizing a specific private property
is warranted.
“A bipartisan majority of NYC Council members is
demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani seize privately owned property in order to save
a piece of Manhattan history tied to the Underground Railroad”
They called on Mamdani to use
the city’s eminent domain powers to preserve the property and
“to block a proposal to build a 100-foot-high commercial
building next door to the Merchant’s House Museum in NoHo, where a secret
passageway used to smuggle slaves to freedom was discovered in February.”
References:
Opinion:
Mamdani introduces New York to socialism, 'block by block'. Opinion by Jonathan
Turley, opinion contributor. The Hill. May 30, 2026. Opinion: Mamdani introduces New York
to socialism, 'block by block'
Private
property. Wikipedia. Private property - Wikipedia
Importance
of Private Property Rights. Bruce Colbert, AICP. Property Owners Association of
Riverside County. July 16, 2018. Importance of Private Property Rights
At
$55M, Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store is a growing boondoggle. Opinion by
Post Editorial Board. New York Post. May 30, 2026. At $55M, Mamdani’s city-owned grocery
store is a growing boondoggle
Socialist
'Red Rabbits' are training for national uprising against cops. Opinion by Stu
Smith. New York Post. June 9, 2026. Socialist 'Red Rabbits' are training
for national uprising against cops
Mamdani-backed
congressional candidate deleted posts calling to seize private property,
abolish police, borders, prisons. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck. CNN. June 1,
2026. Mamdani-backed congressional
candidate deleted posts calling to seize private property, abolish police,
borders, prisons | CNN Politics
Julian
Epstein: Democratic Party is losing moral authority by aligning with extremists.
Fox News. June 12, 2026. Julian Epstein: Democratic Party is
losing moral authority by aligning with extremists | Watch
NYC
Council: Mamdani must seize private property to save Manhattan Underground
Railroad site. Rich Calder. New York Post. June 13, 2026. NYC Council: Mamdani must seize
private property to save Manhattan Underground Railroad site
Opinion:
My family lived through socialism. Most Democrats are frighteningly wrong about
it. Opinion by Emzari Gelashvili. The Hill. June 17, 2026. Opinion: My family lived through
socialism. Most Democrats are frighteningly wrong about it.
Bernie
Sanders’ call to seize the AI industry has damning lessons about politics today.
Opinion by Post Editorial Board. New York Post. June 21, 2026. Bernie
Sanders’ call to seize the AI industry has damning lessons about politics today
