The DSA Comes for the Democrat Old Guard
Think of Alice in Wonderland and the many great poems and stories in that classic book of children’s tales. No sooner than writing them (and others in its sequel, Through the Looking Glass), Lewis Carroll, the 19th-century author, read many of them aloud for the enjoyment of a 10-year-old girl named Alice.
In delving into one of his best-known stories, about the Walrus and the Oysters, we will go back in time to shed new light on current events. The Walrus invites the Oysters to go with him on “a pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,” along the “briny beach.” Though the eldest oyster shakes his “heavy head,” the younger ones pay no heed. They are hoping for a treat. Wave upon wave of them leave the oyster bed to join the giant sea creature on the shore. The poem is full of inspired nonsense … and deeply lurking menace. “The time has come,” the Walrus says –
To speak of many things
Of shoes – and ships – and sealing wax –
And cabbages – and kings –
And why the sea is boiling hot –
And whether pigs have wings.
And walk they do — a long way. “Now if you’re ready, Oyster dears,” the Walrus says in his final words to them. “We can begin to eat.” Overcome with hypocritical “tears and sobs,” but well prepared with pepper, vinegar, and a loaf of bread and butter, the Walrus and the Carpenter, a friend of his, eat every one of the great multitude of Oysters. They were too fat, and too exhausted, to run back to the sea.
That was an abrupt and stunning turnabout. Something like it is playing out today in the political news. But with one big difference. Here the small fry are targeting the big shots, and the young are circling and preying on the old. A far-left youth movement — the Democrats for Socialism in America, which is calling for the overthrow of capitalism and the dismantlement of the U.S. Constitution — is targeting some of the mighty Walruses in the Democratic Party. That means the party leaders and long-established incumbents in Congress and other legislative bodies at the local and state levels. (RELATED: From DSA to Fishback: Why Young Voters Feel Disenfranchised)
As described in a Wall Street Journal news article, young socialists who occupy national leadership in the movement “scarcely hide their disdain for the Democratic Party they view less as a partner than a hostile takeover target.” “We’re gonna take it over,” says one of them, the 24-year-old daughter of immigrant parents from Iraq and Indonesia. Neither she nor her DSA colleagues see America as an exemplar of the American dream. To the contrary…
It’s not just the Democratic Party that the DSA wants to change. In its own words, it wants to “build a new society from the ground up” — believing the one we have now to be corrupt and fatally flawed. They want a radical and all-encompassing government. As if pigs could fly, it would provide free education from kindergarten through college, free healthcare, low-cost and rent-controlled housing, and plentiful jobs with bigger benefits — along with a shortened work week of no more than 32 hours. (RELATED: Why All Leftism Is Now Far Left)
The insurgent socialists look more like marauding barracudas than harmless shellfish.
This largesse would be funded in three ways. First, cutting public spending by defunding police and abolishing prisons, and gutting the U.S. Defense Budget. Second, an old favorite — raising taxes on personal wealth, inheritance, and the income of high-earners and profit-making companies. And third, a socialist government would empower itself to do whatever it wants “through public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries.” That, too, is part of the DSA’s platform. One borrowed from Karl Marx. (RELATED: The Communist Warnings Conservatives Ignored for Years)
Do we exaggerate? You can see it with your own eyes. Everything in this summary may be found in the DSA’s 21-page platform, which is on public display in the organization’s “WORKERS DESERVE MORE!” website. You will also see that it wants to eliminate the Senate and put the Supreme Court under the supervision of Congress.
To those who look with pride at American history and accomplishments, there is, of course, a much different perspective — one of horror. To them, the insurgent socialists look more like marauding barracudas than harmless shellfish. As one of the Democratic Party’s Walruses [a high-ranking official in Bill Clinton’s two terms as president] said in the previously linked WSJ article: “The DSA poses a fundamental threat to the Democratic Party and the nation. Based on their own platform, they are working to undermine our society, our economy, and our form of government.”
Sudden Demise of an Anti-Socialist Consensus
Time was — not too long ago — when “socialism” was a taboo word, shunned by left-leaning or progressive leaders as counterproductive to their own cause. Something that most Americans would instantly reject as “un-American.” That’s no longer the case today. In this year’s mid-term elections, candidates endorsed by DSA won victories in nearly a dozen states (New York, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, George, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, and Vermont). That includes some notable victories against long-entrenched incumbents in local, state, and Congressional elections. (RELATED: Meet America’s New Un-Americans… the DSA)
Talk about momentum. Right now, the DSA movement seems to have plenty of it. Zohan Mamdani, who became the mayor of New York City in the Nov. 4, 2025, election, has won pop-star status as a leading national advocate of Democratic socialism. As the new mayor of the country’s biggest city, he hasn’t wasted any time in putting his words into action. He spearheaded the DSA charge in the primaries that led to a clean sweep in the three Congressional districts, and to additional victories in three out of four openings in the state legislature. Janeese Lewis George, another DSA-endorsed and self-described socialist, won the recently completed Democratic Party primary in the District of Columbia. She will be unopposed in the general election in November. She is expected to be sworn in as mayor of the country’s capital city on Jan. 2, 2027. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Which One of These DSA Morons Is the Worst One?)
In summing up the impact of DSA victories in the recent primaries, the WSJ editorial board said: “This was a rout for the far left over the left … The socialist vision of class conflict and everything-for-everybody economics has ruined many countries. Sooner or later, socialism crashes into reality, but it can do plenty of damage before it does.”
What Happens Between Now and 2076?
There is one thing that may bring the new outbreak of popularity for socialism to a sudden halt, long before “we, the people” get ready to celebrate the nation’s 300th birthday. That is the good judgment of the American people. Winning mid-term elections is one thing; governing is another. If newly elected socialists were to succeed in turning an abundance of bad policies into the law of the land, it would surely come as a shocking surprise to many people.
Socialism takes a quintessential phrase in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address — written in the hope that government “of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth” — and stands it on its head. What we see now from DSA advocates like the New York City mayor is an unrelenting desire by government for bigger and more intrusive government. But the reality is that more government is the problem and not the solution. DSA leaders would say goodbye to free choice, an open and competitive marketplace, and voluntary exchange for mutual benefit.
That would be a terrible loss — for people here and around the world. It would rock the foundations of one of the oldest democracies — the country that created the most freedom, the widest opportunity, and the greatest prosperity that the world has ever seen. Still more, we would lose the will and the capacity to act as the leader of the free world in the 21st century. That is the role that the United States played in leading the free world to victory in three great wars during the 20th century (World War 1, World War 2, and — let’s not forget — the Cold War).
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