What the Democratic Socialists Believe

The DSA website specifies that “We are a political and activist organization, not a party,” and its biggest influence is among Democrats.  In fact, Reingold’s article for the Free Press is entitled Inside the DSA’s Hostile Takeover of the Democratic Party.

The media is turning out anodyne descriptions of Democratic Socialism, which the BBC claims “has no clear definition but essentially means giving a voice to workers, not corporations.”  Actually, Democratic Socialism does have a clear definition.  According to Oxford Reference, an objective source, “Strictly speaking, socialism advocates social ownership of the means of production and is therefore committed to the overthrow of capitalism as an economic model, while maintaining a commitment to political democracy.”

Basically, Democratic Socialism is a sect of Marxism that believes communism can be brought about by political means without violent revolution, though the sources linked above say that the Democratic Socialists don’t rule out violent revolution.  But their immediate tactic is political means.  That is, winning elections.

So since this movement is shaping up to be a viable option for American voters, we should educate ourselves about its policy positions.

Reingold gained access to some DSA internal documents that outline what candidates must commit to in order to gain a DSA endorsement:

Candidates will receive support based on whether they organized for Sanders in the past, support “Palestinian liberation,” and are willing to “openly and proudly identify with DSA and Socialism.” A different resolution specifies over a dozen prerequisites for endorsement by the DSA, such as “the abolition of the police and the U.S. empire,” “return of land to indigenous communities,” and “the right of all people to freedom of movement.”

Here is the required position on Israel:

The candidate must support the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] movement [eliminating all investment in Israel] and the creation of a single, secular, integrated, and democratic Palestinian state in the whole of historic Palestine, and must oppose any measure which would legitimize the Israeli state, transfer funds or arms to the Israeli state, or restrict the right of any person to organize for a free Palestine.

Another good source of information about what the Democratic Socialists of America believe is the DSA Political Platform put together in 2021.  It’s worth reading in its entirety, but here are some quotations from the document (bolds in the original, with my comments italicized and in brackets:

—A new political order through a second constitutional convention to write the founding documents of a new socialist democracy. [Our existing “ossified constitution” should be replaced.  There should be no “undemocratic institutions” such as a Senate or an Electoral College.]

–Extension of voting rights to non-citizens who otherwise meet durational residency requirements for voting.

–Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero.

—Freedom for all incarcerated people. [That includes rejecting “‘alternatives to incarceration’ that are carceral in nature, including problem-solving courts and electronic monitoring and coercive restorative justice programs.”]

–Repeal local ordinances that criminalize people involved in the sex trades, drug trades, and street economies; that criminalize homelessness; and that criminalize squatting and other productive occupation of unused housing.

–End the legacy of colonial violence against indigenous people through repatriation, and call for the US adherence to existing treaties and statutes upholding indigenous rights and sovereignty.

–Social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure.

–Free abortion on demand.

–Allow trans minors to access gender affirming care without parental consent.

–End the repression of sex workers and fully decriminalize sex work nationwide.

—End the state recognition of the gender binary and enforcement of heteronormativity.

–Decommodify survival, so no one’s life depends on their ability to work or to pay.

–End all deportations and enforcement actions, immigration detention, private prison contracts, and deputization of local police forces.

–[A series of demands regarding foreign policy call for withdrawing from NATO, closing all foreign military bases, and normalizing our relationship with socialist nations such as China, North Korea, Cuba, and  Venezuela.]

To me, though, the most telling revelation about the beliefs of the Democratic Socialists of America came out in Zohran Mamdani’s  victory speech:  “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.”

That is to say, in his mindset and that of his supporters, government will concern itself with everything. Government will take care of everything, no matter how large or how small.  That, my friends, is the definition of totalitarianism.

Illustration:  The Fist and Rose, a common symbol of democratic socialism by RootOfAllLight – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149102081