Current Events

Battle Lines: The Democratic Party Establishment Versus the “Democratic Socialists”

The recent primary victories of progressive, purportedly “left-wing” candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Angie Nixon indicate an important sentiment of the U.S. electorate: Americans are leery of Donald Trump and Trumpism. El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary on August 4, defeating Representative Haley Stevens decided by roughly one percentage point. Nixon, who formally aligned with DSA this summer, beat establishment Democrat Alex Vindman by 12 points in the Florida primary for the Senate. 

In response, the Democratic establishment treated both victories as a single threat: the Democratic Socialists of America.

The rise of the DSA, along with DSA-affiliated candidates including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani, is an important through line in an assessment of America’s current political landscape. But important implications loom as the country comes ever closer to a reckoning with its latter-day flirtations with fascism.

DSA recruiting graphic; shared via X

I. The Current Status of the DSA

DSA membership in the United States is at its highest ever, according to the organization’s own reports.

“On July 4, 2026, we hit an all time high of 120,000 DSA members! In absolute numbers, that makes us the largest socialist organization in United States history, officially surpassing the Socialist Party of America under the great Eugene V. Debs, which reached its peak dues-paying membership in 1912.”
“Your National Political Committee Newsletter — Socialism Is Practical.” Democratic Socialists of America, 16 July 2026, www.dsausa.org/news/jul2026_npc_newsletter/. 

The DSA has even taken to using the image of Debs as a recruiting tool in online advertisements.

Eugene V. Debs was the Indiana railroad organizer who helped found the Industrial Workers of the World and ran for president five times on the Socialist Party ticket. In 1919, he famously proclaimed:

“From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it.”
Debs, Eugene V. “The Day of the People.” Marxists Internet Archive, 2009, www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1919/daypeople.htm.

His refusal to support the First World War — and the ten-year prison sentence he drew for it — earned him admiration from V. I. Lenin, who called Debs “the American Bebel” and “one of the most beloved leaders of the American proletariat.”
Lenin, V. I. “Letter to American Workers.” Marxists Internet Archive, 2002, www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/aug/20.htm.

Today’s DSA traces its lineage to Debs, largely through his role in co-founding and leading the Socialist Party of America in the early twentieth century. But DSA, formed from various splinters and an eventual merger, is a markedly different organization from the revolutionary socialist movement Debs represented.

In its present adverts and articles, DSA cites conditions in the U.S.  in the Trump era as the driving force behind the surge in membership.

“Thousands of people are joining DSA every week, because they see us protecting our communities, organizing our workplaces, standing up to fascism, and winning real working class victories against extreme crises caused by the billionaire class.”
Democratic Socialists of America, ibid.

While it is reasonable to infer that the rise in DSA membership is, in some part, a direct response to Trumpism – particularly of that in Trump’s second term – it is vital that Marxist-Leninists view these developments in their proper context. 

As we previously wrote, “the populist appeal of ‘socialism’ has the potential to radicalize working-class Americans by improving awareness regarding social justice, equality, and class consciousness (see “Zohran Mamdani: A Preliminary Marxist-Leninist Assessment, MLRG.online, July 2025). But the DSA is a reform-based platform that is ultimately unable – and likely unwilling – to take the steps necessary to wrest power from the repressive and brutal forces of America’s ruling class. Although the swelling of their membership ranks is an impressive internal benchmark, it is comparatively a drop in the ocean when considering the numbers that are required to win on a national level. 

According to the Federal Election Commission, approximately 244.7 million Americans were eligible to vote in the 2024 presidential election, while approximately 155.2 million voting-eligible Americans cast ballots. Donald Trump received 77,302,580 votes.
United States Federal Election Commission. Official 2024 Presidential General Election Results. 5 Nov. 2024, www.fec.gov.

Against those figures, DSA membership of approximately 120,000 represents roughly 0.05% of the nation’s voting-eligible population. Even if every DSA member registered to vote, turned out, and voted, the organization’s membership would constitute only a tiny fraction of the potential electorate. This makes the DSA a negligible factor in terms of the national popular vote. Its potential influence is further complicated by the fact that presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but through the Electoral College.

The Electoral College presents an additional political obstacle to any third-party presidential candidacy, including the DSA. Presidential “electors” are selected according to state law, and the Supreme Court has upheld the authority of states to require electors to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged. In nearly every state, presidential electors are chosen by registered political parties and required by state law to sign a pledge binding them to their party’s candidate. But they are vulnerable to political interference, as was shown by the challenge to Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. 

“As part of Donald Trump and his allies’ nationwide effort to undermine the 2020 presidential election, 84 total fake electors across seven states signed false electoral certificates claiming that Trump won the election in their states.”
Cantor, Gabriella, and Sara Wiatrak. “The Cases against Fake Electors and Where They Stand.” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 9 July 2024, www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/the-cases-against-fake-electors-and-where-they-stand/.

The broad question is: If electors selected by a major political party are subjected to legal requirements, political pressure, or replacement when they depart from their pledged vote, what realistic mechanism – especially one created to serve the interests of capitalism –  allows any socialist organization confidence that any winning votes cast for a socialist presidential candidate will be enabled by the state apparatus?

The reality is that a reform-based political movement, by itself, does not present an existential challenge to Trump, to Trumpism, or to the ruling class. 

II. The Ruling Class, United Against Socialism

Our criticisms above are not an argument for sectarian attack. Marxist-Leninists should engage the DSA as a genuine force in the anti-fascist movement. As we noted in our 2025 analysis of Zohran Mamdani, the principled support of “progressive” politicians is consistent with the vital strategies set forth by V.I. Lenin.

“The more powerful enemy can be vanquished only by exerting the utmost effort, and by the most thorough, careful, attentive, skilful and obligatory use of any, even the smallest, rift between the enemies, any conflict of interests among the bourgeoisie of the various countries and among the various groups or types of bourgeoisie within the various countries, and also by taking advantage of any, even the smallest, opportunity of winning a mass ally, even though this ally is temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional.”
V.I. Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder, ch. 8, “No Compromises?” (1920), Marxists.org. 

The ruling class recognizes that rising working-class consciousness is ultimately an existential threat. So they will continue to marginalize, isolate, and repress anything remotely resembling a socialist movement. This has the full cooperation of its two political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans.

Republicans, especially in the era of Trump, have proven to be adept at conflating and distorting socialism to stoke fear and hysteria. We have examined this tactic in these previous essays:

Most recently, Democratic hostility has sharpened as DSA candidates have proven they can win elections. Each victory has drawn a sharper anti-socialist response from Democratic Party leaders.

On the eve of Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing.” Carville launched a red-baiting tirade against the DSA He targeted left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker – a prominent El-Sayed backer. Carville threatened to leave the party if Piker’s faction gained influence.  

“To talk about the larger Democratic Party, post the election in Michigan going forward, I am not going to be in the same party with Hasan Piker,” Carville said on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing,” referring to the Michigan Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.).

“I have no intention of ever being in the same political party with that guy. Now, I think that a majority – overwhelming majority of Democrats agree with me, but this idea that we’re going to seize the means of production and this –– just go look at the DSA platform,” he continued, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).”
Mancini, Ryan. “Carville rips Piker: ‘If he becomes a force in the Democratic Party, I’m out of here.'” The Hill, 2 Aug. 2026, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6004598-carville-piker-democratic-party-split/.

Weeks later, Carville appeared on prominent right-wing pundit Jesse Watters’ show and roundly dismissed DSA, part and parcel:

“They’re a bunch of silly people… a pack of fools,” Carville said as he referred to DSA members during a Monday appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime.”
Steinhauser, Paul. “Socialism Surges among Democrats as Party Leaders Reject DSA Agenda: ‘Pack of Fools’.” *Fox News*, 21 Aug. 2026, www.foxnews.com/politics/socialism-surges-among-democrats-party-leaders-reject-dsa-agenda-pack-fools

El-Sayed recently distanced himself from streamer Hasan Piker after Piker likened Israel to “Jewish ISIS” and warned that Jewish Americans’ identification with Zionism would provoke violence against them.

El-Sayed’s move away from Piker was likely influenced by public pressure from establishment Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – one of the most prominent Democratic leaders and a likely future candidate for president.
Associated Press. “El-Sayed distances himself from popular streamer Hasan Piker.” AP News, 24 Aug. 2026, apnews.com/article/elsayed-michigan-senate-hasan-piker-israel-antisemitism-848cb6859ba019479d6da8024e720b0b.

Jeffries, in mid-August, explicitly rejected any commonality between his party and the DSA.

“I don’t support the DSA agenda, as has been articulated by the DSA itself,” Jeffries said during an interview this past weekend on NBC News’ Meet the Press.”
Steinhauser, “Socialism Surges.”

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, who remains a prominent voice in the party, has publicly advised the DSA to look elsewhere for support in elections – even as fascism tightens its grip on the United States.

“I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Harrison wrote in a social media post in June. “Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support.”
Swenson, Ali. “Republicans Decry a New Democratic Socialists of America Platform as Dem Primaries Split the Party.” *PBS NewsHour*, 27 July 2026, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republicans-decry-a-new-democratic-socialists-of-america-platform-as-dem-primaries-split-the-party

House Representative Josh Gottheimer went even further in a post on X, labeling DSA members as: “anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders”. This is the same rhetoric that Trumpites use to justify political violence against the left. In a climate where “anti-American” is already the description for domestic threats, the word “bomb-thrower” is particularly inflammatory.
Gottheimer, Josh (@RepJoshG). “The Democrats have a big tent. That’s our strength. We embrace a range of ideas — but there’s no room for anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders.” X, 21 July 2026, x.com/RepJoshG/status/2079234888918843442.

Swenson, Ali. “Republicans Decry a New Democratic Socialists of America Platform as Dem Primaries Split the Party.” *PBS NewsHour*, 27 July 2026, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republicans-decry-a-new-democratic-socialists-of-america-platform-as-dem-primaries-split-the-party

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is widely regarded as part of the next generation of establishment Democratic leadership. He joined in the attacks on the DSA and its platform, asserting that socialism is not a viable solution for struggling Americans.

“What I make of it is that people are struggling… And right now, they’re seeing a system that doesn’t work for them. Now, I believe socialism is a failed experiment, but I do believe that we need to get results for the American people, and I think when you look at Democratic governors, you see those results.”
Panreck, Hanna. “Beshear Calls Socialism a Failed Experiment as Poll Finds Dems View It More Favorably Than Capitalism.” *Fox News*, 17 Aug. 2026, www.foxnews.com/media/andy-beshear-calls-socialism-failed-experiment-poll-finds-dems-view-more-favorably-than-capitalism.

But few Democratic Party commentaries have proven as vitriolic in their critiques on DSA as The Atlantic. Founded in 1857, the American periodical is rated “left” by media bias project AllSides:

“Sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating of “Left” display media bias in ways that strongly align with liberal, progressive, or left-wing thought and/or policy agendas. This is our most liberal rating on the political spectrum.”
AllSides. “The Atlantic Media Bias.” AllSides, 2026, www.allsides.com/news-source/atlantic-media-bias.

Showing this “left” lean over its 169 years of operation, The Atlantic has only endorsed five candidates for U.S. President, the first of which was Abraham Lincoln. The second was Lyndon Johnson, endorsed over ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater. The remaining three are all Democratic Candidates of the present era: Hillary Clinton (2016), Joe Biden (2020), and Kamala Harris (2024).
(“The Atlantic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Aug. 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic. ) Its’ views are a barometer of the Democratic Party establishment. 

The Atlantic’s coverage of the DSA’s evolving political profile has grown particularly critical over recent months, including a series of hyper-critical editorial-styled articles targeting the organizations platform, its candidates, and its membership.

Graphic accompanying Chait’s essay in The Atlantic.

Jonathan Chait’s July 1 piece, entitled “There’s Nothing Democratic About These Socialists” was especially venomous. It cast the DSA as a left-wing equivalent of MAGA and, perhaps more significantly, as potential spoilers in the Democratic Party’s battle against fascism:

“But even to conceive of the DSA’s entry to the party as mainly an electoral setback, as some glum liberals appear to be doing, is to miss the deeper significance of the group’s influence. The costs of an alliance with the DSA are moral as well as political. The Democratic Party is waging an existential struggle to save democracy, the rule of law, and liberal norms. The DSA’s vanguard does not merely believe that its defense has faltered. It holds those values themselves in contempt as resistance-wine-mom frivolity.”
Chait, Jonathan. “There’s Nothing Democratic About These Socialists.” The Atlantic, 1 July 2026, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/dsa-communist-socialist-democrats/687756/. 

He continues, suggesting that the DSA is a “Trojan horse,” bent on altering the political DNA of the Democratic Party

“What the DSA demands of the Democrats is not merely to advocate more generous social policies, or more cautious foreign affairs, but to welcome, or at least accept, authoritarians as their coalition partners. Democrats are likely to face the same kind of pressure that Republicans confronted with MAGA’s hostile takeover: first to ignore their allies’ sinister goals, and then to rationalize and eventually justify them.

As authoritarian elements gain strength, they become more essential to the success of a political coalition, and the price of confronting them rises. The Republican Party has long since passed the point of no return. The easiest time to draw clear moral lines against the encroachment of illiberalism within one’s own camp is at the beginning.”
Chait, ibid.

Chait also resorted to vintage red-baiting, dredging up the worst traditions of anti-communist hysteria:

“The organization is still called Democratic Socialists, of course, but the term does not necessarily mean “liberal democracy” as Americans have traditionally defined it. Many socialist thinkers define what they call “true democracy” as a system in which capitalism has been overturned and the proletarian classes have seized political power through their representative vanguard (that is, them). Totalitarian states such as the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) accordingly labeled themselves “democratic.”

This is not, obviously, how the group sells itself to the broader universe of left-leaning, mostly Democratic voters it is trying to attract. During the New Deal era, Stalinist organizers pitched themselves as “liberals in a hurry.” The Progressive Party, which ran Henry Wallace for president in 1948, was secretly run by Communist Party loyalists, but it appealed to standard liberals by touting themes such as civil rights, economic justice, and an end to the Cold War.”
Chait, ibid.

One week later, The Atlantic staff writer David Brooks – a self-professed Republican – implored the Democratic Party to get tough with the DSA:

“The Cold War liberals had opponents on both sides—the McCarthyite right and the Communist left. Fighting a two-front war is bad for an army but good for a political movement. Instead of settling for Manichaean us-versus-them categories, movements beset on both sides need to clearly define their own worldview, their own values, their own set of plans. They have to combine a moderation of the mind with a forcefulness of the will. I figure the mainstream Democrats have until the 2028 primary season to stand up for themselves. If they don’t, America will have two opposing parties that were both hijacked by radical insurgencies.
Brooks, David. “Democrats Became Great by Fighting the Left.” The Atlantic, 8 July 2026, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/democrats-fight-left-dsa/687839/.

James Kirchick’s July 21 piece, “The DSA Is a Parasite,” offered a decidedly sharper tone, urging rejection of the DSA:

“Even after a string of recent victories in congressional primaries by members of the Democratic Socialists of America, national Democrats appear slow to recognize that ideologues on the left are attempting a hostile takeover of the party. The DSA’s ascent comes on the heels of a yearslong effort by socialists and progressive activists to steer one of America’s two major political parties toward identity politics, isolationism, and hostility to capitalism.”
Kirchick, James. “The DSA Is a Parasite.” The Atlantic, 21 July 2026, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/07/dsa-socialist-leftist-takeover/687989/. 

His essay ends with a call to arms directed at establishment Democrats.

“Open letters aren’t enough. If the Democrats want to root out the party within their party, they will need to stop indulging the DSA’s constant, passive-aggressive attempts to undermine them. This would require prohibiting DSA members from joining their party and throwing out the DSA members already honeycombed within it. Four decades ago, Labour’s Neil Kinnock expelled the extremist faction burrowing within his beloved party. If Democrats want to rescue their party, they may need to do the same.”
Kirchick, ibid.

Tyler Austin Harper’s August 22 essay, “Why Do Rich Kids Love Socialism?” was more conciliatory towards the DSA in tone than the general Atlantic line, reframing well-off leftists as veritable heretics rather than hypocrites:

“Many members of today’s professional class are apostates, and this apostasy is worth taking seriously as a sign of an economic order that cannot seem to justify itself to its own public-relations arm.”
Harper, Tyler Austin. “Why Do Rich Kids Love Socialism?” The Atlantic, 22 Aug. 2026, www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/08/socialism-rich-kids-gordillo/688382/.

III. Conclusions for the Present

The DSA now confronts the unified hostility of both ruling-class parties. Membership has surged to historic highs under Trump, yet no reformist organization can realistically break capitalism’s tentacled hold on American government and society. Still, for all its constraints, the DSA’s present line serves working-class interests, and over time it may help dissolve the anti-communist assumptions that decades of red-baiting have cemented. 

Nevertheless, Marxist-Leninists must remain critical in offering our support to DSA endeavors. In New York, Zohran Mamdani has already shown that at critical junctures, a DSA-backed mayor will sacrifice working-class interests and capitulate to conventional political interests, undercutting the coalition that elected him.

Moreover, as we have shown, electoral success is not enough. The fight against Trumpism demands a broader united front of all forces willing to combat fascism, based upon the examples of Lenin and Stalin.

“You must be capable of any sacrifice, of overcoming the greatest obstacles, in order to carry on agitation and propaganda systematically, perseveringly, persistently and patiently in those institutions, societies and associations—even the most reactionary—in which proletarian or semi-proletarian masses are to be found.”
Lenin, V. I. “Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions?” “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder, Marxists Internet Archive, 1920, www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch06.htm.

“The rich experience of history teaches that up to now not a single class has voluntarily made way for another class. There is no such precedent in world history. …  the working class (must ) be vigilant, to be prepared for battle. Who wants a captain who lulls the vigilance of his army, a captain who does not understand that the enemy will not surrender, that he must be crushed? To be such a captain means deceiving, betraying the working class. That is why I think that what seems to you to be old-fashioned is in fact a measure of revolutionary expediency for the working class.”
Stalin, Joseph. “Interview with H. G. Wells.” Marxists Internet Archive, 23 July 1934, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1934/07/23.htm.

From this base, the struggle can move forward toward the ultimate liberation of the poor and working classes from capitalist domination.

Author: Mike B

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