That explanation helped me greatly. It does appear that there is an ideological schism and associated war happening within the DSA, and it's spilling over into national Democratic strategy. However, without understanding where an individual DSA candidate falls in the spectrum, it's difficult to issue a blanket stance either way (endorse or reject), precisely because where they fall on this schism can put them either in the "sane" or "crazy" part of DSA.
I believe it's important for the national Democratic coalition not to be captured by the crazy national DSA platform. I'm torn on whether the best path for that is to embrace the sane part of the DSA and resolve the schism in their favor, or have all the sane DSA people leave and let the crazy DSA wither on its own. Either way, though, I am coming to agree that the threat of capture is real - we saw with MAGA that it is more than possible for a minority faction to form a voting bloc too important for a national party to ignore, and by that route, secure minority rule over the entire nation.
According to Wikipedia, two elected federal officials are DSA members, out of 537 (Congress plus President and vice president). Sixty-seven serve in state legislatures (out of 7,386 total). Seven mayors (there are 1500 elected mayors of cities with more than 30,000 residents), one county executive (out of 700), and 110 elected city and county executive officials (there are 19,000 elected county officials and more than 100,000 elected city officials) are DSA members. I present these as facts without arguing whether the DSA “punches above its weight,” but note the DSA is starting with a weight of about 65 pounds soaking wet.
I agree the DSA has some reprehensible positions and has spouted some very evil rhetoric. At least some of them appear to be capital-S Socialists who buy into Leninism or Maoism or some other vile ideology.
But let’s be honest and precise with words here: small-s socialism, without any ideological commitment, is as American as apple pie. Attributing “DSA influence” to any manner of non-ideological social policy (eg, Medicare for all, free or inexpensive college tuition, stronger collective bargaining rights, universal minimum wages) is neither honest nor precise. I think you’d agree with that last sentence; am I correct? (Not a gotcha question; just a good-faith clarifier!)
Fair to note those statistics, but their danger isn’t that they get elected, it’s that they get MAGA elected. For those of us singularly focused on saving American democracy from MAGA, the need to defeat MAGA in elections is priority number one. DSA (and it’s snotty cousin, the Green Party) focus their attacks primarily on Democrats, and particularly Democrats in swing states and close elections. The threat they pose is to worsen cynicism, reduce the Dem vote, break up the anti-MAGA coalition, and, ultimately, elevate MAGA. The key elections will be determined by razor-thin margins, so the DSA attack-from-within is particularly potent despite not having many elected officials, as your statistics note. (By the way, I say all this not because I dislike all their professed policies; I do like many, all of which are more likely by voting Dem).
You make a good point. The main goal is to stop maga and trump, especially in this midterm, as a Democratic Congress can only hope to investigate and otherwise stymie this administration in the next congressional session. The danger I see for our democracy in the next two years is the left of the Democratic Party building expectations for big changes that Democrats won’t have the power to enact—so they get set up for failure and backlash.
What I see happening on a longer time horizon is the Democratic Party experimenting, sometimes forced to do so by local voters. I don’t see much danger in that, though, as there is no universal formula for Democratic electoral success. The only long term risk I see (so I partly agree with Garry) is that Democrats start taking on ideological rhetoric and positions from Capital-S Socialists. I see that threat as pretty small right now, but worth keeping an eye on; Garry, IMO, seems to think this threat is much bigger than it is.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
The way our electoral system is designed it inevitably ends up a two party system. It’s the design itself, not that anyone’s choices are being limited.
…Kasparov is a chess player, not a politician, his conflict in politics always off for me, he is and always was a privileged in a soviet union, despite his seemingly “great disagreement” with the regime is always carry this notion with him and his assessment of political and geopolitical dynamics is off and he writes shit like this:
…” The modern DSA refused to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2024. It’s a morbid historical irony that during the 2024 presidential election, the DSA, the organization Harrington founded in the spirit of political pragmatism, refused to support Kamala Harris. On the eve of the most consequential presidential election since the Civil War, the DSA released a shameful statement casting a false equivalence between Harris and Donald Trump. As the specter of a second Trump term loomed, Zohran Mamdani, one of the most prominent DSA officeholders, encouraged voters to reject Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
…i was sick to vote for “lesser evil” just for “big evil” cancelled it out or rendered it useless, doing same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is arrested development and definition of stupidity - GOOD LUCK WITH THAT and its a fact because it’s already happened, only ignorant and politically impaired person can argue with facts
Before Bernie Sanders ran against Clinton, the DSA had about 5,000 members. Bernie has had a long association with the group but has been careful not to become a paid member. When he lost the primaries against Clinton a large faction of his voters refused to vote for her and either went to Trump or withheld their votes altogether, ending up as members of the DSA and have grown the DSA’s membership to 120,000 and growing due to the popularity of Mamdani, a longtime DSA member and El Sayed, who has associated with DSA enough they trusted him to give about six speeches to their members. Bernie has supported DSA candidates over the years and though he is not a paid member of DSA, he isn’t a Democrat either. He has essentially grown the DAsA’s membership and given them the power to get their members elected. DSA refused to vote for Kamala and so did Mandani. To dismiss their growing membership as a big nothing-burger can split the vote in swing states and get us another four years of fascism.
They have already elected 250 of their own candidates in local and state elections in 40 states but they now need money to keep placing their candidates inside our government and intend to drain the Democratic Party’s resources doing it. Meanwhile, DNC leadership isn’t paying attention and will find themselves in the same mess Republicans are in if they don’t stand up to the DSA.
I will not contribute to candidates who associate with or are aligned with the DSA. I refuse to help elect fake Democrats with Marxist and Communist ties, paid or otherwise. I won’t do that to my grandchildren.
If the GOP had stood up when they had the chance we would not be seeing our military being starved or dying in the Strait of Hormuz because a Fascist lunatic who was also dismissed as not a threat in 2016 has been running amok on the entire world !
The DSA has published pamphlets and articles that clearly state who they are and their intention to take over the Democratic Party and to drain its resources over time to gain power with their elected candidates, ultimately trashing the Democratic Party, overturning the Constitution and changing our government to the Democratic Socialists Republic. The DSA already refer to each other as “comrade”.
I recommend doing a google search for the DSA’s own pamphlet entitled, “A Guide to DSA Politics”, January 31, 2025. Also, the article entitled “Towards a Presidential Platform” by Jenna Grove, October 28, 2025, at the DSA’s convention. These are not AI. They are DSA writings.
There are 101 Democrats in Congress who jumped up and professed to be democratic socialists. Well, do they mean of the DSA variety? Because that is not the kind of social programs most Dems I know would mean. Elected Dems as well as candidates need to be required by the Democratic Party to clarify exactly what they mean. “Social Democrat” doesn’t clarify it enough to prevent voter confusion, in my opinion. Perhaps taking on the word “Progressive Democrat” could be less confusing but changing from “Democratic Socialist” is imperative because the DSA organization is not “Democrat” and the Democratic Party must not allow DSA candidates to use Democratic Party resources in a planned hostile takeover which is no different than what Trump and his MAGA fascists did to the GOP.
This is a bunch of spaghetti made of shit thrown at the wall. But why be a fucking liar and say that 100 Democrats in Congress declared themselves "Democratic socialists?" Being a fucking liar does no one any favors whatsoever. It's really easy to just tell the truth. If you have to make up lies to get your point across, your point sucks.
Is Capitalism really working? Is America really a meritocracy? I see a good old boy’s club with deep family pockets attending elite institutions living off inheritances and/or pillaging whatever they can get their grubby little hands on. We better figure out how to socialize Capitalism or the young folks will do it for us.
I would not know.!I do know if the elections in November break towards the Republicans that we all may experience living conditions this country has ever seen.
When Republicans and SCOTUS forced through Citizens United, monied interests were unable to donate as they are now through hidden PAC money. Dems have no choice but to take PAC money to compete. If the DSA uses that as an excuse then why are they attempting to take over Democratic Party resources to get their Marxist candidates elected?
I missed the part where I mentioned DSA. The Democratic establishment is weak and corrupt. What is the definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Give me fighters untethered from corporate and billionaire funding and let’s take this country back!
I think you’re working for Israel. You made many assumptions. Too many. The current candidates who refuse AIPAC scares Israel and their supporters. Denigrating the American working class and the politicians who want to better represent them is a strategy. A tired one. So is AIPAC owning owe government. I’m not the least bit antisemitic. I’m a proud American who is disgusted with my government. The Israeli government’s negative effect on the US government is awful for our country.
This is a new phenomenon in the US. Citizens are going to, overwhelmingly vote against candidates that take sovereign or corporate money.
Your anecdote about Piker is just that. One loser. Don’t be like that.
Ah yes if all you do is cloak your antisemitism in the guise of “I’m just criticizing the state of Israel” (aipac is not the state of Israel btw) then magically it’s not antisemitism.
No one is against American workers. Communism and Marxism take over corporations and there still is wealth at the top and they murder people who threaten their power because they take away the voting power of the people when they take control just like Trump is trying to do. In the DSA’s publications they state they want the president elected by a sub-committee of sorts. Please read more about their intentions. All I’m saying is it is best to vote for Dems not affiliated or friends with the DSA because they are not for our Constitutional democracy.
Just maybe, it takes one hostile takeover to defeat another. The self defeating Democratic Party cannot exist as it is. Socialism is not the enemy. All religions, consciously come to this conclusion. Capitalism and democracies do not coexist. We are watching this is real time.
This is literally false in every sentence. “Capitalism” isn’t a coherent ideology, its absence of socialism. And it definitely works better - just look which way people run when the machine gun towers that socialists erect every time look away.
What impact? Withholding votes for Clinton and Kamala helped get Trump elected. Splitting the vote always gets us a Republican. Nader got George W. Bush elected. Bernie split the vote and got Trump elected twice.
Too many people confuse the Scandinavian welfare state with socialism. One has a prosperous capitalist economy that funds social programs. The other is a failed undemocratic system, crushed by its contradictions.
I am with most everything in the above comment except the final phrase.
In politics, in this country, people like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, AOC and Mayor Mamdani (pretty sure Senator Warren is not formally a member of DSA… (while her advocacies seem to lean ‘for the people’) aren’t hard core. Congressman Ro Khanna & Senator Chris Murphy seem to have the straight story as well.
Unlike many of my American siblings I don’t conflate socialism with capitalism but I do see an oligarchy in power here
I have watched this country dragged and drained by the influence of money and the elite on both sides… very UN-‘for the people’ .
I do see a push towards a bigger Cold War this time against China. Our problems armed bigger than any one nation can solve. Divided nations pocketed off and in capitalistic competition will only accelerate our peril.
The weaving ins and outs of the international body of socialist politics/politicians is in no way a study of mine, but the military industrial complex and the schism between democracy and capitalism for its own sake do not escape me.
The Democratic Party was not meeting the moment and the momentum of our nation was marginalizing a greater and greater percentage of the population of the world, and its health as a viable planet. Usury in all things for the sake of profit.
Kings were being made. A king class maybe … we need to see through the smoke.
No gun control, climate crisis unmet, the affordable care act getting its teeth cut out from the beggining, the consumer protection act being filleted of its backbone, stalemate between parties in Congress and the senate, elections being controlled by advertising, studiously wielded to control people’s minds, unfettered & unaccounted for spending on war-ability, making wars, many proxy, around the world, everything falling so much under the sway of consumption and competition, individualism, addictions.
Neither party and certainly not the two together were steering the ship well.
No, I don’t read the fine print of the academic bodies on the political sidelines, I’m truly a mostly uneducated Citizen, but the real wolf is in the hen house, and its cousin the DNC who snuck around some years back, pulling the rug out from under voters and Bernie Sanders because what? They knew better. Then they had Biden try for a second term maybe from their hubris as well?
They co-steered themselves & us here and things weren’t working or honest when they had the helm. After all, project 2025 was coffee table reading.
It’s a huge step-for-person-kind moment out here. Half measures seem silly. Socialism is not communism.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
The Structure of the Usa Consitutional government was explicitly created _not_ as a democrscy in 1788, but as an oligarchy of a cabal of cut-throat capitalist aristocrats, who wontonly practiced racist, bigotry, genocide, explicitly excluded Blacks, Indigenous peoples, Muslims, women, and anyone who was not a "white Male of good standing" in the 1790 Citizen Act of the very First Congress. This also excluded, poor landless, propertyless, whites and all endentured workers and appreticists.
It was not a democracy. That is a horrid lie and myth.
It was only after the Civil Wsr, after the assissination of the racist Lincoln, when the Radical Faction of the Republican Party seized power and control of the Congress by absolutely refusing to seat Representatives of the defeated Confederare rebel states, and pushed through the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments that the Second Republic was able to spring forth. The rebels were forced to approve those Amendments as a sine qua non conition of their readmission to the Federal Union. That is Resistance and political power in action. A template for the DSA.
Every single time a third party candidate splits the vote the opposition wins. Every time, yet fools keep doing it and this time Republicans have even created multiple PACs acting like pro-socialists to push the unsuspecting naïve Dems toward the DSA. Good grief!
…i was so fucking tired to write and to post it: …we can not just live in democracy from elections to elections, we have to SUSTAIN ITS PROGRESS, you can’t just SHAME PEOPLE TO VOTE, when you have TWO OPTIONS and neither of them you agreed to - it’s system failure
…it’s an utter absurd to think 340 Million people from all over the world can be represented by two parties
…TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS ONE STEP TO AUTOCRACY - FACT !
…consumerism, political ignorance and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired people, citizens supposed to want to vote because they want to change what is wrong, and if they think it doesn’t matter what they’ll say they will not go to vote, how difficult to fucking get it ?!
Maybe we should talk about corporate Democrats and how they are beholden to their rich benefactors and not the people they are supposed to serve, while Mamdani is doing a good job running NYC and the other DSA candidates are actually seriously addressing the concerns that real people care about. Mamdani may not be perfect, who is, but he is probably the best Mayor NYC has had since LaGuardia. I have been looking at the DSA platform and didn’t see anything relating to your last attack. I am trying to figure out why you feel the need to attack progressive candidates but not a peep about corporate democrats. I do agree about not supporting Harris and argued with someone stridently about that, although she was not DSA. I understand her position though. I think my father, born in Palestine on a kibbutz, would have condemned the October 6th attack but also understood about the conditions that the Palestinians were facing, after Israel was established, that have led to to that attack and would most certainly have condemned the Genocide that has been perpetrated since then. Someone wearing a Mao jacket is a problem? Sad. You are a chess champion so I’m trying to figure out the motives behind your moves. There don’t seem to be many facts in your factual argument. More like distortions, especially around Bernie Sanders.
I was surprised to see the link to your assertion that the DSA “victim-blamed” Ukraine for the war led to this:
“The http://dsausa.org/joincondemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demands immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis. We stand in solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of this war, and with antiwar protestors in both countries and around the world who are calling for a diplomatic resolution.”
DSA does victim blame Ukraine for the Russian invasion. You left out (deliberately?) the key paragraph in their statement.
"DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict."
DSA repeats, nearly verbatim, Putin's rationale for launching this war of annihilation.
This is a bad, pro-Russian statement. Not a word about Ukraine's right to self-defense and self-preservation. Tired party platitudes about "solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia" and Marxist mumblings about "no war but class war" do not change that. It absolves the Kremlin of any agency and blames Ukraine by attacking NATO, an institution Kyiv tried to join for its own protection.
The DSA has paid a bit of lip service to condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But it has overwhelmingly, for years, falsely blamed it on the U.S. and NATO, falsely parroted talking points about all sorts of conspiracies, promoted Russian propagandists, demanded that Ukraine be left without weapons to fend for itself, insisted Ukrainians do not act with their own agency, and falsely argued that the brutal assault on Ukraine is a “proxy war.” It is standard fare for an extremist organization to issue a single, tiny, bland platitude on occasion to give its useful idiots to something to point to as balanced. (Jill Stein is guilty of this, too; she is a pure pro-Russia propagandist, despite once having emitted a tweet that blandly condemned Russia).
You're preaching to choir with this swing voter Gary. I voted Democratic in both 2020 and 2024. I will NOT under any circumstance vote for a DSA candidate regardless of my loathing for Donald Trump in 2028. Collective brain death is an ugly thing to witness and I refuse to be a part of it.
Mr. Kasparov, I admire a lot of what you have done and your courageous stands against Putin and the Russian regime, especially regarding Ukraine. But on this one, you're seeing Hasan Piker as representative of all of the Democratic Socialists (most people haven't even heard of Piker). For example, I see your point about Piker equating Trump and Harris and Biden. But he's not a leader of the DSA. The real leaders, Bernie Sanders and AOC, supported and campaigned for Biden and Harris.
Garry, I enjoy your pieces on the dangers of DSA, but I believe they are of varying quality. (This is coming from somebody who has published a book and several papers on democratic theory, kept a blog on these issues for about 10 years, and reviews democracy books for 3:16 AM Magazine.) E.g., the one you put out the other day on democratic socialism v. social democracy seems to me quite good, while this one is significantly confused on a couple of points. These flaws are likely making those who agree with you regarding the dangers of Trumpism a bit more hostile to your pieces on dangers of the left.
Perhaps others will already know what I'm talking about here. But if you or any of your readers would care to know precisely where I believe your argument goes a bit off the rails in this one and a few others, you or they might let me know in a comment, and I will explain further. (I don't want to muck up your feed if nobody is particularly interested in my thoughts.)
I suppose you may not wish to personally respond to the comments of unpaid subscribers, a policy I understand. And, of course, it's entirely possible that my remarks will be valueless. I import my blog here at substack, so, naturally, you/they may wish to peruse a bit before responding. Totally up to you.
I'm with you on the frustration with the false equivalence between Harris and Trump.
I did a subjective analysis of Mamdani's policy decisions so far and they seem much more moderate than the national DSA positions. In another substack comment thread someone pointed me at this analysis: https://nathannewman.substack.com/p/the-sane-nyc-dsa-vs-the-crazy-national
That explanation helped me greatly. It does appear that there is an ideological schism and associated war happening within the DSA, and it's spilling over into national Democratic strategy. However, without understanding where an individual DSA candidate falls in the spectrum, it's difficult to issue a blanket stance either way (endorse or reject), precisely because where they fall on this schism can put them either in the "sane" or "crazy" part of DSA.
I believe it's important for the national Democratic coalition not to be captured by the crazy national DSA platform. I'm torn on whether the best path for that is to embrace the sane part of the DSA and resolve the schism in their favor, or have all the sane DSA people leave and let the crazy DSA wither on its own. Either way, though, I am coming to agree that the threat of capture is real - we saw with MAGA that it is more than possible for a minority faction to form a voting bloc too important for a national party to ignore, and by that route, secure minority rule over the entire nation.
The standard communist tactic, the same is happening in the Netherlands, the social democratic party is taken over by extreme left.
It certainly doesn’t help that they have a red flag. Seriously, wth are they thinking if they don’t want to be called Communists?
Yes, very sad. I am a Cold War anti-Communist Social Democrat. I would love to see a rebirth of that movement but I fear capture as well.
According to Wikipedia, two elected federal officials are DSA members, out of 537 (Congress plus President and vice president). Sixty-seven serve in state legislatures (out of 7,386 total). Seven mayors (there are 1500 elected mayors of cities with more than 30,000 residents), one county executive (out of 700), and 110 elected city and county executive officials (there are 19,000 elected county officials and more than 100,000 elected city officials) are DSA members. I present these as facts without arguing whether the DSA “punches above its weight,” but note the DSA is starting with a weight of about 65 pounds soaking wet.
I agree the DSA has some reprehensible positions and has spouted some very evil rhetoric. At least some of them appear to be capital-S Socialists who buy into Leninism or Maoism or some other vile ideology.
But let’s be honest and precise with words here: small-s socialism, without any ideological commitment, is as American as apple pie. Attributing “DSA influence” to any manner of non-ideological social policy (eg, Medicare for all, free or inexpensive college tuition, stronger collective bargaining rights, universal minimum wages) is neither honest nor precise. I think you’d agree with that last sentence; am I correct? (Not a gotcha question; just a good-faith clarifier!)
Fair to note those statistics, but their danger isn’t that they get elected, it’s that they get MAGA elected. For those of us singularly focused on saving American democracy from MAGA, the need to defeat MAGA in elections is priority number one. DSA (and it’s snotty cousin, the Green Party) focus their attacks primarily on Democrats, and particularly Democrats in swing states and close elections. The threat they pose is to worsen cynicism, reduce the Dem vote, break up the anti-MAGA coalition, and, ultimately, elevate MAGA. The key elections will be determined by razor-thin margins, so the DSA attack-from-within is particularly potent despite not having many elected officials, as your statistics note. (By the way, I say all this not because I dislike all their professed policies; I do like many, all of which are more likely by voting Dem).
You make a good point. The main goal is to stop maga and trump, especially in this midterm, as a Democratic Congress can only hope to investigate and otherwise stymie this administration in the next congressional session. The danger I see for our democracy in the next two years is the left of the Democratic Party building expectations for big changes that Democrats won’t have the power to enact—so they get set up for failure and backlash.
What I see happening on a longer time horizon is the Democratic Party experimenting, sometimes forced to do so by local voters. I don’t see much danger in that, though, as there is no universal formula for Democratic electoral success. The only long term risk I see (so I partly agree with Garry) is that Democrats start taking on ideological rhetoric and positions from Capital-S Socialists. I see that threat as pretty small right now, but worth keeping an eye on; Garry, IMO, seems to think this threat is much bigger than it is.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
…we created the empire and now we have an emperor
The way our electoral system is designed it inevitably ends up a two party system. It’s the design itself, not that anyone’s choices are being limited.
…Kasparov is a chess player, not a politician, his conflict in politics always off for me, he is and always was a privileged in a soviet union, despite his seemingly “great disagreement” with the regime is always carry this notion with him and his assessment of political and geopolitical dynamics is off and he writes shit like this:
…” The modern DSA refused to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2024. It’s a morbid historical irony that during the 2024 presidential election, the DSA, the organization Harrington founded in the spirit of political pragmatism, refused to support Kamala Harris. On the eve of the most consequential presidential election since the Civil War, the DSA released a shameful statement casting a false equivalence between Harris and Donald Trump. As the specter of a second Trump term loomed, Zohran Mamdani, one of the most prominent DSA officeholders, encouraged voters to reject Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
…i was sick to vote for “lesser evil” just for “big evil” cancelled it out or rendered it useless, doing same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is arrested development and definition of stupidity - GOOD LUCK WITH THAT and its a fact because it’s already happened, only ignorant and politically impaired person can argue with facts
Before Bernie Sanders ran against Clinton, the DSA had about 5,000 members. Bernie has had a long association with the group but has been careful not to become a paid member. When he lost the primaries against Clinton a large faction of his voters refused to vote for her and either went to Trump or withheld their votes altogether, ending up as members of the DSA and have grown the DSA’s membership to 120,000 and growing due to the popularity of Mamdani, a longtime DSA member and El Sayed, who has associated with DSA enough they trusted him to give about six speeches to their members. Bernie has supported DSA candidates over the years and though he is not a paid member of DSA, he isn’t a Democrat either. He has essentially grown the DAsA’s membership and given them the power to get their members elected. DSA refused to vote for Kamala and so did Mandani. To dismiss their growing membership as a big nothing-burger can split the vote in swing states and get us another four years of fascism.
They have already elected 250 of their own candidates in local and state elections in 40 states but they now need money to keep placing their candidates inside our government and intend to drain the Democratic Party’s resources doing it. Meanwhile, DNC leadership isn’t paying attention and will find themselves in the same mess Republicans are in if they don’t stand up to the DSA.
I will not contribute to candidates who associate with or are aligned with the DSA. I refuse to help elect fake Democrats with Marxist and Communist ties, paid or otherwise. I won’t do that to my grandchildren.
If the GOP had stood up when they had the chance we would not be seeing our military being starved or dying in the Strait of Hormuz because a Fascist lunatic who was also dismissed as not a threat in 2016 has been running amok on the entire world !
The DSA has published pamphlets and articles that clearly state who they are and their intention to take over the Democratic Party and to drain its resources over time to gain power with their elected candidates, ultimately trashing the Democratic Party, overturning the Constitution and changing our government to the Democratic Socialists Republic. The DSA already refer to each other as “comrade”.
I recommend doing a google search for the DSA’s own pamphlet entitled, “A Guide to DSA Politics”, January 31, 2025. Also, the article entitled “Towards a Presidential Platform” by Jenna Grove, October 28, 2025, at the DSA’s convention. These are not AI. They are DSA writings.
There are 101 Democrats in Congress who jumped up and professed to be democratic socialists. Well, do they mean of the DSA variety? Because that is not the kind of social programs most Dems I know would mean. Elected Dems as well as candidates need to be required by the Democratic Party to clarify exactly what they mean. “Social Democrat” doesn’t clarify it enough to prevent voter confusion, in my opinion. Perhaps taking on the word “Progressive Democrat” could be less confusing but changing from “Democratic Socialist” is imperative because the DSA organization is not “Democrat” and the Democratic Party must not allow DSA candidates to use Democratic Party resources in a planned hostile takeover which is no different than what Trump and his MAGA fascists did to the GOP.
This is a bunch of spaghetti made of shit thrown at the wall. But why be a fucking liar and say that 100 Democrats in Congress declared themselves "Democratic socialists?" Being a fucking liar does no one any favors whatsoever. It's really easy to just tell the truth. If you have to make up lies to get your point across, your point sucks.
Is Capitalism really working? Is America really a meritocracy? I see a good old boy’s club with deep family pockets attending elite institutions living off inheritances and/or pillaging whatever they can get their grubby little hands on. We better figure out how to socialize Capitalism or the young folks will do it for us.
It’s definitely working better then its alternative. I’ve lived both.
I would not know.!I do know if the elections in November break towards the Republicans that we all may experience living conditions this country has ever seen.
When Republicans and SCOTUS forced through Citizens United, monied interests were unable to donate as they are now through hidden PAC money. Dems have no choice but to take PAC money to compete. If the DSA uses that as an excuse then why are they attempting to take over Democratic Party resources to get their Marxist candidates elected?
I missed the part where I mentioned DSA. The Democratic establishment is weak and corrupt. What is the definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Give me fighters untethered from corporate and billionaire funding and let’s take this country back!
I think you’re working for Israel. You made many assumptions. Too many. The current candidates who refuse AIPAC scares Israel and their supporters. Denigrating the American working class and the politicians who want to better represent them is a strategy. A tired one. So is AIPAC owning owe government. I’m not the least bit antisemitic. I’m a proud American who is disgusted with my government. The Israeli government’s negative effect on the US government is awful for our country.
This is a new phenomenon in the US. Citizens are going to, overwhelmingly vote against candidates that take sovereign or corporate money.
Your anecdote about Piker is just that. One loser. Don’t be like that.
Maybe you should follow in the footsteps of Aaron Bushnell.
That’s a little extreme. Did I touch a nerve?
The nerve you touched was “this guy is a fucking idiot and probably an antisemite”
Can’t separate Jews from the Israeli government? I can.
Ah yes if all you do is cloak your antisemitism in the guise of “I’m just criticizing the state of Israel” (aipac is not the state of Israel btw) then magically it’s not antisemitism.
If that’s what you call a win. Opposing AIPAC is antisemitism.
Now I know. Thanks
No one is against American workers. Communism and Marxism take over corporations and there still is wealth at the top and they murder people who threaten their power because they take away the voting power of the people when they take control just like Trump is trying to do. In the DSA’s publications they state they want the president elected by a sub-committee of sorts. Please read more about their intentions. All I’m saying is it is best to vote for Dems not affiliated or friends with the DSA because they are not for our Constitutional democracy.
Fun with labels. Nazis called themselves socialist. Probably to appeal to to the left.
“No one is against American workers” is very vague like Israeli criticism of Americans who want better for themselves.
Just maybe, it takes one hostile takeover to defeat another. The self defeating Democratic Party cannot exist as it is. Socialism is not the enemy. All religions, consciously come to this conclusion. Capitalism and democracies do not coexist. We are watching this is real time.
“Self-defeating Democratic Party” DSA loses the vast majority of its elections.
The DSA is not the Democratic Party. However, imo it is trying to take it over in a similar way the fascists took over the GOP.
Marxist socialism is an enemy and just as hostile to our freedoms and Constitution as fascism is.
This is literally false in every sentence. “Capitalism” isn’t a coherent ideology, its absence of socialism. And it definitely works better - just look which way people run when the machine gun towers that socialists erect every time look away.
Respectfully Brian, just for S&G’s, Google the following:
“What impact has the DSA had on the Democratic Party”.
In the words of Bob Dylan… “The Times, They are a changin’”
What impact? Withholding votes for Clinton and Kamala helped get Trump elected. Splitting the vote always gets us a Republican. Nader got George W. Bush elected. Bernie split the vote and got Trump elected twice.
Too many people confuse the Scandinavian welfare state with socialism. One has a prosperous capitalist economy that funds social programs. The other is a failed undemocratic system, crushed by its contradictions.
I am with most everything in the above comment except the final phrase.
In politics, in this country, people like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, AOC and Mayor Mamdani (pretty sure Senator Warren is not formally a member of DSA… (while her advocacies seem to lean ‘for the people’) aren’t hard core. Congressman Ro Khanna & Senator Chris Murphy seem to have the straight story as well.
Unlike many of my American siblings I don’t conflate socialism with capitalism but I do see an oligarchy in power here
I have watched this country dragged and drained by the influence of money and the elite on both sides… very UN-‘for the people’ .
I do see a push towards a bigger Cold War this time against China. Our problems armed bigger than any one nation can solve. Divided nations pocketed off and in capitalistic competition will only accelerate our peril.
The weaving ins and outs of the international body of socialist politics/politicians is in no way a study of mine, but the military industrial complex and the schism between democracy and capitalism for its own sake do not escape me.
The Democratic Party was not meeting the moment and the momentum of our nation was marginalizing a greater and greater percentage of the population of the world, and its health as a viable planet. Usury in all things for the sake of profit.
Kings were being made. A king class maybe … we need to see through the smoke.
No gun control, climate crisis unmet, the affordable care act getting its teeth cut out from the beggining, the consumer protection act being filleted of its backbone, stalemate between parties in Congress and the senate, elections being controlled by advertising, studiously wielded to control people’s minds, unfettered & unaccounted for spending on war-ability, making wars, many proxy, around the world, everything falling so much under the sway of consumption and competition, individualism, addictions.
Neither party and certainly not the two together were steering the ship well.
No, I don’t read the fine print of the academic bodies on the political sidelines, I’m truly a mostly uneducated Citizen, but the real wolf is in the hen house, and its cousin the DNC who snuck around some years back, pulling the rug out from under voters and Bernie Sanders because what? They knew better. Then they had Biden try for a second term maybe from their hubris as well?
They co-steered themselves & us here and things weren’t working or honest when they had the helm. After all, project 2025 was coffee table reading.
It’s a huge step-for-person-kind moment out here. Half measures seem silly. Socialism is not communism.
…two party system is only one step to autocracy, it’s fucking absurd to think 340 million people of this DIVERSE and multi cultural country can be represented by TWO PARTY ONLY, you can’t bully people to vote if you give them no options, i was really sick voting for “lesser evil” just to witness that “big evil” rendering the “good one” useless
…consumerism, political ignorance, religion and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired nation
…it didn’t happened overnight, for decades the trick was to convince american liberals they still live in a democracy, while led them to the point of no return by pulling the rug under their feet, but they still don’t fucking get it
…we created the empire and now we have an emperor
The Structure of the Usa Consitutional government was explicitly created _not_ as a democrscy in 1788, but as an oligarchy of a cabal of cut-throat capitalist aristocrats, who wontonly practiced racist, bigotry, genocide, explicitly excluded Blacks, Indigenous peoples, Muslims, women, and anyone who was not a "white Male of good standing" in the 1790 Citizen Act of the very First Congress. This also excluded, poor landless, propertyless, whites and all endentured workers and appreticists.
It was not a democracy. That is a horrid lie and myth.
It was only after the Civil Wsr, after the assissination of the racist Lincoln, when the Radical Faction of the Republican Party seized power and control of the Congress by absolutely refusing to seat Representatives of the defeated Confederare rebel states, and pushed through the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments that the Second Republic was able to spring forth. The rebels were forced to approve those Amendments as a sine qua non conition of their readmission to the Federal Union. That is Resistance and political power in action. A template for the DSA.
Every single time a third party candidate splits the vote the opposition wins. Every time, yet fools keep doing it and this time Republicans have even created multiple PACs acting like pro-socialists to push the unsuspecting naïve Dems toward the DSA. Good grief!
…i was so fucking tired to write and to post it: …we can not just live in democracy from elections to elections, we have to SUSTAIN ITS PROGRESS, you can’t just SHAME PEOPLE TO VOTE, when you have TWO OPTIONS and neither of them you agreed to - it’s system failure
…it’s an utter absurd to think 340 Million people from all over the world can be represented by two parties
…TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS ONE STEP TO AUTOCRACY - FACT !
…consumerism, political ignorance and lack of proper education made this country a politically impaired people, citizens supposed to want to vote because they want to change what is wrong, and if they think it doesn’t matter what they’ll say they will not go to vote, how difficult to fucking get it ?!
https://www.vice.com/en/article/we-cant-save-democracy-just-by-voting/
Maybe we should talk about corporate Democrats and how they are beholden to their rich benefactors and not the people they are supposed to serve, while Mamdani is doing a good job running NYC and the other DSA candidates are actually seriously addressing the concerns that real people care about. Mamdani may not be perfect, who is, but he is probably the best Mayor NYC has had since LaGuardia. I have been looking at the DSA platform and didn’t see anything relating to your last attack. I am trying to figure out why you feel the need to attack progressive candidates but not a peep about corporate democrats. I do agree about not supporting Harris and argued with someone stridently about that, although she was not DSA. I understand her position though. I think my father, born in Palestine on a kibbutz, would have condemned the October 6th attack but also understood about the conditions that the Palestinians were facing, after Israel was established, that have led to to that attack and would most certainly have condemned the Genocide that has been perpetrated since then. Someone wearing a Mao jacket is a problem? Sad. You are a chess champion so I’m trying to figure out the motives behind your moves. There don’t seem to be many facts in your factual argument. More like distortions, especially around Bernie Sanders.
Extremes bring extremes.
We’ve got one that woke up the other one.
So now what?
Rally around Schumer instead of Sanders ? Or just start from scratch and lose again… “Rien n’est simple “ 😝
Sanders has pretty much an undisputed history of integrity,
Schumer has pretty much the opposite, and a vassal of AIPAC to say the least, so where would you go ? Truth or fabrication? I let you decide….
I was surprised to see the link to your assertion that the DSA “victim-blamed” Ukraine for the war led to this:
“The http://dsausa.org/joincondemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demands immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis. We stand in solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of this war, and with antiwar protestors in both countries and around the world who are calling for a diplomatic resolution.”
DSA does victim blame Ukraine for the Russian invasion. You left out (deliberately?) the key paragraph in their statement.
"DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict."
DSA repeats, nearly verbatim, Putin's rationale for launching this war of annihilation.
This is a bad, pro-Russian statement. Not a word about Ukraine's right to self-defense and self-preservation. Tired party platitudes about "solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia" and Marxist mumblings about "no war but class war" do not change that. It absolves the Kremlin of any agency and blames Ukraine by attacking NATO, an institution Kyiv tried to join for its own protection.
The DSA has paid a bit of lip service to condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But it has overwhelmingly, for years, falsely blamed it on the U.S. and NATO, falsely parroted talking points about all sorts of conspiracies, promoted Russian propagandists, demanded that Ukraine be left without weapons to fend for itself, insisted Ukrainians do not act with their own agency, and falsely argued that the brutal assault on Ukraine is a “proxy war.” It is standard fare for an extremist organization to issue a single, tiny, bland platitude on occasion to give its useful idiots to something to point to as balanced. (Jill Stein is guilty of this, too; she is a pure pro-Russia propagandist, despite once having emitted a tweet that blandly condemned Russia).
I had the same reaction, read the last paragraph. It does sneakily imply victim blaming, and calls for dissolution of NATO
Thank you for your analysis, I almost always agree with you and always appreciate the points you are making. A question:
What do you see as the main differences between American socialists and American progressives?
You're preaching to choir with this swing voter Gary. I voted Democratic in both 2020 and 2024. I will NOT under any circumstance vote for a DSA candidate regardless of my loathing for Donald Trump in 2028. Collective brain death is an ugly thing to witness and I refuse to be a part of it.
Mr. Kasparov, I admire a lot of what you have done and your courageous stands against Putin and the Russian regime, especially regarding Ukraine. But on this one, you're seeing Hasan Piker as representative of all of the Democratic Socialists (most people haven't even heard of Piker). For example, I see your point about Piker equating Trump and Harris and Biden. But he's not a leader of the DSA. The real leaders, Bernie Sanders and AOC, supported and campaigned for Biden and Harris.
Garry, I enjoy your pieces on the dangers of DSA, but I believe they are of varying quality. (This is coming from somebody who has published a book and several papers on democratic theory, kept a blog on these issues for about 10 years, and reviews democracy books for 3:16 AM Magazine.) E.g., the one you put out the other day on democratic socialism v. social democracy seems to me quite good, while this one is significantly confused on a couple of points. These flaws are likely making those who agree with you regarding the dangers of Trumpism a bit more hostile to your pieces on dangers of the left.
Perhaps others will already know what I'm talking about here. But if you or any of your readers would care to know precisely where I believe your argument goes a bit off the rails in this one and a few others, you or they might let me know in a comment, and I will explain further. (I don't want to muck up your feed if nobody is particularly interested in my thoughts.)
I suppose you may not wish to personally respond to the comments of unpaid subscribers, a policy I understand. And, of course, it's entirely possible that my remarks will be valueless. I import my blog here at substack, so, naturally, you/they may wish to peruse a bit before responding. Totally up to you.
Best,
Walter Horn