Democratic socialism is rising in America’s cities. Don’t ignore the warning

Democratic socialism is sweeping the country. All three far-left candidates supported by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani won the primaries. Elections in Washington, D.C. have thrust another self-described “democratic socialist” into the national spotlight.

What does it mean when our nation’s capital and the Empire City vote for democratic socialist candidates? The obvious answer is to look at what democratic socialists elsewhere claim and do.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is a self-described democratic socialist who advocates defunding the police and has led campaigns targeting private property owners.

MAMDANI’S POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE SHOCKED THE DEMOCRATS, PUT THE PARTY FORWARD

Seattle has a history of revolutionary politics. Kshama Sawant, a self-proclaimed socialist who is currently running for Congress, has been associated with the politics of jealousy and agitation, from the destructive Occupy Movement to the deadly Seattle-based Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in 2020.

New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has called for free transportation, state-run grocery stores, aggressive interventions on private property and real estate, as well as a massive increase in the number of public workers and even taxing some universities to subsidize others.

The Free Press reports that Organized NYC, New York City’s new legion of social workers and campaigners, appears designed not just to “serve the people” but also to champion the mayor’s agenda and build a political constituency, right down to the red “socialism” bracelets on some “volunteers.”

Democratic socialists are the heirs of an earlier generation of progressive activists; a generation that believed it could impose a utopian “Great Society” through state power.

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Their ideological descendants can see the symptoms of these failures, but not their causes. The old progressives failed because they buried society under bureaucracy and unaccountable bureaucracy while stifling initiative, innovation, competition, and market incentives.

Today’s democratic socialists look at sclerosis, weak growth, and bureaucratic dysfunction and blame wealth creators, innovators, property owners, and businesses. They remained behind. The first culprit is bad policy.

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The democratic socialist prescription is always the same: more government, more taxes, less freedom, less opportunity. There’s a reason why major companies continue to move out of California, New York and Washington state and into opportunities like Texas and Florida.

Now another major American city stands on the threshold of so-called democratic socialism. Regardless of party label, Americans need leaders who believe in the American Dream: individual freedom, opportunity, strong families, civil society, a vibrant private sector, and limited government.