The Socialist wave isn’t about Trump — it’s the Democrat Party’s reality

This year has seen socialists make their furthest inroads into “mainstream” American politics than any time since the early 20th century.

Even though this is clearly a phenomenon manifesting itself within the Democrat Party, more than a few media commentators have incorrectly attempted to tie this socialist red wave to President Donald Trump.

A recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Trump Opened the Window for the DSA,” argued essentially that Trump is just so mean and awful, he’s caused so much derangement on the Left, that they decided to embrace communism to stop him.

“Both his genuine sins and his imagined ones handed the left permission to come unglued, pushing otherwise serious but mainstream left-leaning ideologues to adopt positions they would have laughed at a decade ago,” the authors argued. “The radical, dangerous and merely stupid are not only permissible but mandatory.”

Undergirding this argument is the absurd premise that to stop Democrats from becoming bloodthirsty communists we just have to be nicer to them — unlike that meanie Trump — and maybe give them what they want.

But this argument is bunk for several reasons, a significant one being the words of the insurgents who’ve been quite clear that their movement is only tangentially about the president.

Here’s a socialist victory party in New York City where the attendees shouted, “you’re next,” directed at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Not exactly someone likely to be sporting a MAGA hat.

When Melat Kiros, the newest socialist darling who won her House primary in Colorado was asked if she supported Jeffries she said, according to the New York Post, “I’m not supporting anyone for leadership who takes corporate PAC money. I’m dead serious about this issue. We have to start setting a standard now.”

It’s clear when you listen to what the socialists have to say they are directing their fire mainly at the Democratic Party establishment. They aren’t just about opposing Trump. They are about bringing about a socialist revolution, and obliterating Israel, of course.

The Democratic Party and its media allies can hardly be accused of going soft on Trump over the years. They’ve pretty much pulled out the stops to ruin him for over a decade. From accusing him of being a Manchurian candidate, to multiple impeachments, to nearly throwing him in jail, they’ve broken pretty much every political norm to crush the “bad, orange man.”

However, the insurgent socialists are notably less focused on Trump. Sure, they hate him with just as much pathological rage as any Democrat, but their ire for the moment is focused more intensely on the party establishment and its perceived lack of commitment to leftwing values.

That’s where the “Democrat version of the Tea Party” comparisons come from. Though I don’t think the comparison quite fits.

In this bizarro scenario, the Tea Party focused not on defending the Constitution, restoring federalism, and controlling government spending, but putting a stick of dynamite in the Constitution, consolidating all power in a single governing politburo, and liquidating the rich to pay for their social programs.

As Daily Signal Executive Editor Rob Bluey said on CNN, the socialists are about returning to their tradition, which means obliterating our republic.

The rising socialists want to take leftwing orthodoxy to its logical conclusions. And the Democratic Party is the perfect empty vessel to do that with.

According to a new Pew poll, at least a third of Democrats already say they like leaders who identify as socialists. And that number skews even more toward socialists among the young, college-educated Democrats who are the backbone of the party’s activist class.

So, in a sense the socialist red wave isn’t a sign that more Americans suddenly went to the far Left because they hate Trump. It’s more of a reflection of where many Democrats already were.

The flip is happening because the Democratic Party powers that be lost their Mandate of Heaven. They could placate their base by saying that they had to keep up “moderate” appearances to defeat Trump and Republicans. 

Their defeat in 2024 alongside the national “vibe shift” away from peak Great Awokening has broken the establishment’s right to rule. And the generational divide on Israel and even Western civilization is becoming too much for the party to bear.

The creaky, cynical old party is being washed away for something more fanatical, more ruthless, and less American.

Trump hardly caused this problem. His existence, and success, merely brought these dynamics to the surface. The hordes of zealous socialists simply smell blood and an opportunity to fundamentally change America.

Originally published at the Daily Signal.