Kevin’s Journal: Did Socialism Heat Up This Summer? It Could Be a Good Thing for Our Future

The midterms are coming up and there have been a lot of shocking developments in the primaries that started last November. Zohran Mamdani was elected as mayor of New York City as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in that November election.

According to Time magazine, “By the time DSA members gather in Chicago in early August, Republicans are gleefully calling it the ‘Summer of Socialism.’ The organization’s membership has surged past 120,000. Its candidates and allies have toppled establishment-backed Democrats in Congressional primaries from New York to Colorado to Florida.” These primary wins have brought in a lot of attention to the DSA and it’s allowed people to comfortably start calling themselves democratic socialists.

Let’s be real, Democrats are not the popular “cool kids” they used to be. These primaries are bringing in the new generation of voters who need candidates with better values, and the DSA candidates have the stuff they are looking for. Hot topics like ending aid to Israel, raising the minimum wage, and building affordable housing across this country are all popular among these younger voters.

According to DSA’s website, “We are activists committed to democracy as not simply one of our political values but our means of restructuring society. Our vision is of a society in which people have a real voice in the choices and relationships that affect the entirety of our lives. We call this vision democratic socialism — a vision of a more free, democratic and humane society.” This demonstrates that the DSA is not only a political organization, but they are also trying to fix our society as a whole.

The DSA has had a lot of primary wins this cycle, including mayoral elections for Katie Wilson in Seattle and Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C. In Florida Angie Nixon won big for being one of the first DSA to win a statewide race in her primary for Senate. While Abdul El-Sayed is not a DSA member he does have very progressive values and won his U.S. Senate seat in Michigan.

While the DSA might not be the dramatic shift to socialism a lot of people may want, it is a start to a more socialistic society. When we embrace candidates who strive for a more progressive society we can build a fairer government for all of our citizens, even those who do not always agree with us. We need leaders who value our lives, and the DSA leaders definitely have more power to do this than the majority of our leaders today.

We as society should be trying to go about politics in a way that supports every working-class person, and currently, we do not do that in today’s world. A lot of Democratic leadership does not want to support DSA members and a lot of times will support primary candidates for these elections by spending millions. A lot of the DSA members do not accept money from the corporations and PACs that have ruled the party primaries, and doing this allows them to make decisions for themselves rather than the special interests that control the typical parties’ leadership.

When responding to a poll on the uptick of Democrats supporting socialism, Democratic senator from Pennsylvania John Fetterman said on the social platform X, “The Democratic Party is becoming the party of socialism. 58% view socialism positively. 50% view capitalism negatively. I’m a proud free market capitalist. This is lunacy.”

This is just the start of controversies for Fetterman and could cause his exit from the Democratic Party. It is interesting that he has been a vocal critic of these policies, especially since a lot of public figures tend to hide away during controversies. It provides insight to Washington’s power, and how people run on progressive ideas like Fetterman’s, who supported universal healthcare and endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016.

There is a lot of noise surrounding the DSA and not everyone has to bow down to them of course, but it could not hurt to include them in the party. Many Republicans have rallied behind “Make America Great Again.” With more ideas from more people — like socialist policies — we could fight the Trump administration. Fighting his administration should be top of mind for us, and pushing people out of our party will do nothing but cause division. When we have a common enemy we are able to fight the rise of fascism.