Ellie Lerner is an editorial associate at the Renew Democracy Initiative, where she supports editorial production and contributing authors for The Next Move.

My late grandfather, Michael Lerner, taught me to “always go with your highest vision.” As a founder of the New America Movement—an organization that folded into the nascent Democratic Socialists of America over 40 years ago—he argued that justice meant refusing to settle for anything less than our highest ideals of what is right.

I understand why that message is so appealing; it satisfies a basic human itch for certainty and conviction. But I’ve watched with growing unease as my generation embraces a politics that jettisons liberalism in the name of that same vision. I see that now in the DSA’s recently released 2026 platform, and I worry: what is the highest vision actually asking us to give up along the way?

The DSA, like the Republican Party, seems comfortable throwing out the checks that keep political power from concentrating in one place.

My Grandfather Helped Start DSA. Its Platform…

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