Love the article, I’m on board with the anti-DSA sentiment. Reminds me of previous major revolutions in world history (French, Russian) where an overproduction of disillusioned elites are pissy about their lack of status, so they ferment revolutions on “behalf” of the people.
Horrible DSA politics aside, I’m trying to piece together if there is actual legitimate grievances these DSA’ers have. There might be something there:
Expectations: Lot of disillusioned educated folks feel like they did everything right in life that they were told to do with the “success sequence.” They actually have decent paying jobs, but at age 29, they are finding themselves with too much student debt, not enough affordable housing, and no partner due to young people not going out anymore. I could see where that combination would frustrate me, and two of those factors (too many government loans, too much housing degrowth policies) were heavily dictated and enforced by the politics of previous generations.
Instability: I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, where the most significant event (fall of berlin wall) didn’t really impact me. Young adults have had to deal with the Great Recession, smartphones, rise of populism, COVID, and now AI. That’s a lot of instability, I could see why they are attracted to a more authoritarian politics that promises to stabilize things.
Its another way to say that both Dems and Repubs should denounce DSA politics, but also should do sensible things with government to alleviate the pressure on these young adults. And by sensible, I mean stop creating recessions and pandemics, reduce government involvement with student loans, and reduce barriers to housing development.
First is, yes, there are legitimate problems that DSA is exploiting. We all recognize the problems. Nobody is saying everything is fine. The challenge is to determine the best solution, and Marxism is the worst solution to every problem.
One of the reasons is that, as you have hit on, people of the younger generations are unaware of just how bad communism was. They did not see the Berlin crisis in 1962 when the Soviets had to build a wall to keep people in because it was so bad in East Berlin. They did not see and refuse to hear (or have never been taught about) the butchery of tens of millions of people by communists like Stalin and Mao.
What we are trying to do is save these poor young people from repeating that history. As they say, you can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.
A lot of people right now among the Democrats think that what DSA is advocating is Scandinavian social democracy, Medicare for all, and such. That is not what they are talking about. They are talking about tearing up the Constitution. They are talking about destroying corporations and nationalizing them.
We have seen this movie before. We saw it in the UK. We saw it in Imperial Russia. We saw what happens when you nationalize industries—they turn to absolute, worthless garbage. The shelves are empty.
So the ends of Marxism and socialism and the DSA’s platform are the good intentions that pave the road to hell— to improve the quality of life. It is the means to the end that are the absolute antithesis of what actually should be done to achieve those ends, and that is the big disagreement, and that is what I think people who vote for these idiots cannot see.
I equate the DSA to child molesters. They drive up in their big black car and they offer you free bus rides and free this and free that, and then they get you in the car, and it turns out they take you to the guillotine like the French Revolution that you so appropriately bring up because you make too much money. After all, you are too productive, because you do not use the right pronouns. You do not want to go there, and I think it is our job, those of us who can see what is coming, to try to spare people from it before they become useful idiots and vote the United States of America as we know it out of existence, and the rest of the free market world.
There was a time when what is happening in the Democratic party would lead to massive Republican landslides. This is because moderate Democrats would abandon the party. They did it for Nixon. They did it for Reagan and the did it for Bush the elder. And the Democrats running in those days weren't a fraction as leftist as what is happening today. The Republicans should be poised for a landslide. There should be no such thing as a "blue" state that is beyond reach. The reason this cannot happen today is because the Republican party has been taken over by Trump and his works. You are right no Democrat will vote for Trump or a Trump clone. So whether the DSA will take over is really dependent, not on whether the mainstream Democrats can beat them back (They can't) but on what the Republicans do. I am not optimistic.
A lot of Democrats who voted for Biden did indeed vote for Trump. Elon Musk for one, but he brought along much of the Silicon Valley cohort of people. People like David Sacks and the All-In podcast. RFK jr. was forced to leave the party and caused many in the party to at least reconsider, given what the party has become. They drift of the party is not just this year, it started long before that. It became especially evident the way Biden was shutting off debate during the election.
You understand that a country that used to give 49 states tk Republicans now barely gives them a majority efen when a senile dunce like Biden is the candidate. Yes some switched. Including me. But many more will never vote for Trump or a party dominated by Trump. Its time for a figure that can attract support not bleed it. Before its too late.
TDS is a form of insanity that has caused at least half the country to lose its mind. That was predictable in 2016. Hopefully, it is temporary as it was in 1972.
TDS meaning the adoption of any position Trump opposes and the belief of every scurious rumor yes. The belief that he is a disgrace to the presidency and lacks almost all of the virtues traditionally sought in a leader is not TDS. And it is THIS that keeps people voting Democrat who if it were say Reagan would be gleefully voting Republican. It is my belief that anyone associated with this administration, including Rubio who I am a huge fan of, is going to be badly hurt by association with him. That is assuming he doesn't essentially take over the nomination and election process with his buffonish antics.
We clownish better than a choice between Marxism and buffoonish clownism.
Were you around when Reagan was president? The media and the democrats made much the same hysterical end-of-the-world claims as they are now. Reagan's assassin was motivated to shoot him because of a young starlet's outrage. They warned us about Reagan's "cowboy diplomacy" going to blow up the world and get us all killed. That he was a failed actor and inexperienced politician. The difference is that there was a more restrained media that knew it needed to retain at least an image of objectivity to remain credible, so they played it straight. But many in the party were pushing for impeachment over Iran-contra and whatever they got their hands on. It was only due to the speaker of the house Tip O'Neill who shut it down.
Iran Contra was in 1987. Long after Reagan won two consecutive landslides. There were hearings but no serious effort at all to impeach Reagan nor would it have succeeded. You must be misremembering the assassination attempt 2 months into Reagan's term. Hinckley wanted to impress Jody Foster because he was insane. There is no indication it had anything to do with alleged outrage by Foster towards Reagan at all. She was a college student at the time, not a starlet. In any event the difference is that Reagan wasn't any of the things he was accused of. And in fact the Democrats in Congress cooperated with and worked with him. Moreover Reagan was as different from Trump as night is from day. Its like comparing a toddler to a school teacher.
Not what I said. You claimed moderate democrats won't abandon the party now, when many clearly did. Much of it due to Trump's campaign strategy. For all of Trump's faults, he does not pose a threat anything like that coming from the DSA. And Trump isn't even running again. We can survive two more years of Trump. We cannot survive socialism once it gets embedded in our politics.
Not what I said. What I said there is that there are millions of voters who will not vote Republican because of Trump and persons similar to Trump who otherwise might have. This will likely bring the DSA to power.
He won't be on the ballot. He will be very much on the mind of swing voters. Or do you think the Republican nominee is going to denounce Trump and promise to do things differently? I don't see how that would be possible.
Love the article, I’m on board with the anti-DSA sentiment. Reminds me of previous major revolutions in world history (French, Russian) where an overproduction of disillusioned elites are pissy about their lack of status, so they ferment revolutions on “behalf” of the people.
Horrible DSA politics aside, I’m trying to piece together if there is actual legitimate grievances these DSA’ers have. There might be something there:
Expectations: Lot of disillusioned educated folks feel like they did everything right in life that they were told to do with the “success sequence.” They actually have decent paying jobs, but at age 29, they are finding themselves with too much student debt, not enough affordable housing, and no partner due to young people not going out anymore. I could see where that combination would frustrate me, and two of those factors (too many government loans, too much housing degrowth policies) were heavily dictated and enforced by the politics of previous generations.
Instability: I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, where the most significant event (fall of berlin wall) didn’t really impact me. Young adults have had to deal with the Great Recession, smartphones, rise of populism, COVID, and now AI. That’s a lot of instability, I could see why they are attracted to a more authoritarian politics that promises to stabilize things.
Its another way to say that both Dems and Repubs should denounce DSA politics, but also should do sensible things with government to alleviate the pressure on these young adults. And by sensible, I mean stop creating recessions and pandemics, reduce government involvement with student loans, and reduce barriers to housing development.
They didn't do everything right. They majored in useless things and racked up massive debt for no purpose.
Those gender and African-American studies just didn't get the ROI. 😏
I think you have hit on two key points.
First is, yes, there are legitimate problems that DSA is exploiting. We all recognize the problems. Nobody is saying everything is fine. The challenge is to determine the best solution, and Marxism is the worst solution to every problem.
One of the reasons is that, as you have hit on, people of the younger generations are unaware of just how bad communism was. They did not see the Berlin crisis in 1962 when the Soviets had to build a wall to keep people in because it was so bad in East Berlin. They did not see and refuse to hear (or have never been taught about) the butchery of tens of millions of people by communists like Stalin and Mao.
What we are trying to do is save these poor young people from repeating that history. As they say, you can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.
A lot of people right now among the Democrats think that what DSA is advocating is Scandinavian social democracy, Medicare for all, and such. That is not what they are talking about. They are talking about tearing up the Constitution. They are talking about destroying corporations and nationalizing them.
We have seen this movie before. We saw it in the UK. We saw it in Imperial Russia. We saw what happens when you nationalize industries—they turn to absolute, worthless garbage. The shelves are empty.
So the ends of Marxism and socialism and the DSA’s platform are the good intentions that pave the road to hell— to improve the quality of life. It is the means to the end that are the absolute antithesis of what actually should be done to achieve those ends, and that is the big disagreement, and that is what I think people who vote for these idiots cannot see.
I equate the DSA to child molesters. They drive up in their big black car and they offer you free bus rides and free this and free that, and then they get you in the car, and it turns out they take you to the guillotine like the French Revolution that you so appropriately bring up because you make too much money. After all, you are too productive, because you do not use the right pronouns. You do not want to go there, and I think it is our job, those of us who can see what is coming, to try to spare people from it before they become useful idiots and vote the United States of America as we know it out of existence, and the rest of the free market world.
If we can not tame hate, then we can expect the degradation of man to continue until we become history.
There was a time when what is happening in the Democratic party would lead to massive Republican landslides. This is because moderate Democrats would abandon the party. They did it for Nixon. They did it for Reagan and the did it for Bush the elder. And the Democrats running in those days weren't a fraction as leftist as what is happening today. The Republicans should be poised for a landslide. There should be no such thing as a "blue" state that is beyond reach. The reason this cannot happen today is because the Republican party has been taken over by Trump and his works. You are right no Democrat will vote for Trump or a Trump clone. So whether the DSA will take over is really dependent, not on whether the mainstream Democrats can beat them back (They can't) but on what the Republicans do. I am not optimistic.
A lot of Democrats who voted for Biden did indeed vote for Trump. Elon Musk for one, but he brought along much of the Silicon Valley cohort of people. People like David Sacks and the All-In podcast. RFK jr. was forced to leave the party and caused many in the party to at least reconsider, given what the party has become. They drift of the party is not just this year, it started long before that. It became especially evident the way Biden was shutting off debate during the election.
The rise of the DSA should trigger more and more defections among the producer-taxpayer class.
You understand that a country that used to give 49 states tk Republicans now barely gives them a majority efen when a senile dunce like Biden is the candidate. Yes some switched. Including me. But many more will never vote for Trump or a party dominated by Trump. Its time for a figure that can attract support not bleed it. Before its too late.
TDS is a form of insanity that has caused at least half the country to lose its mind. That was predictable in 2016. Hopefully, it is temporary as it was in 1972.
TDS meaning the adoption of any position Trump opposes and the belief of every scurious rumor yes. The belief that he is a disgrace to the presidency and lacks almost all of the virtues traditionally sought in a leader is not TDS. And it is THIS that keeps people voting Democrat who if it were say Reagan would be gleefully voting Republican. It is my belief that anyone associated with this administration, including Rubio who I am a huge fan of, is going to be badly hurt by association with him. That is assuming he doesn't essentially take over the nomination and election process with his buffonish antics.
We clownish better than a choice between Marxism and buffoonish clownism.
Were you around when Reagan was president? The media and the democrats made much the same hysterical end-of-the-world claims as they are now. Reagan's assassin was motivated to shoot him because of a young starlet's outrage. They warned us about Reagan's "cowboy diplomacy" going to blow up the world and get us all killed. That he was a failed actor and inexperienced politician. The difference is that there was a more restrained media that knew it needed to retain at least an image of objectivity to remain credible, so they played it straight. But many in the party were pushing for impeachment over Iran-contra and whatever they got their hands on. It was only due to the speaker of the house Tip O'Neill who shut it down.
Iran Contra was in 1987. Long after Reagan won two consecutive landslides. There were hearings but no serious effort at all to impeach Reagan nor would it have succeeded. You must be misremembering the assassination attempt 2 months into Reagan's term. Hinckley wanted to impress Jody Foster because he was insane. There is no indication it had anything to do with alleged outrage by Foster towards Reagan at all. She was a college student at the time, not a starlet. In any event the difference is that Reagan wasn't any of the things he was accused of. And in fact the Democrats in Congress cooperated with and worked with him. Moreover Reagan was as different from Trump as night is from day. Its like comparing a toddler to a school teacher.
Not what I said. You claimed moderate democrats won't abandon the party now, when many clearly did. Much of it due to Trump's campaign strategy. For all of Trump's faults, he does not pose a threat anything like that coming from the DSA. And Trump isn't even running again. We can survive two more years of Trump. We cannot survive socialism once it gets embedded in our politics.
Not what I said. What I said there is that there are millions of voters who will not vote Republican because of Trump and persons similar to Trump who otherwise might have. This will likely bring the DSA to power.
TRUMP IS NOT ON THE BALLOT ANYMORE. Why are you acting like he's going to be the choice in 2028?
He won't be on the ballot. He will be very much on the mind of swing voters. Or do you think the Republican nominee is going to denounce Trump and promise to do things differently? I don't see how that would be possible.
Neither am I. The general will be a sanity check on the country.