J.D. Tuccille: America’s Democrats embrace radical socialism

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. Al Drago/Bloomberg Photo by Al Drago /Bloomberg

Article content

There’s an old saying that you should never interrupt an enemy when he’s making a mistake. It should go without saying that you should also not watch your enemy make a mistake and take it as an opportunity to make even worse decisions. Yet, as the U.S. Republican Party continues its slide into authoritarian populism and cult-of-personality boosterism around President Donald Trump, that’s what the Democratic Party is doing. Rather than embrace a chance to be the reasonable choice, it’s instead morphing into a vehicle for revolutionary socialism and bigotry.

Article content

Article content

Nationally, even after disgraced Democratic candidate Graham Platner tucked his tail and withdrew from the Maine Senate race, progressive candidates are racking up victories in Democratic primaries with platforms that promise a much larger, more expensive and wildly intrusive government, as well as policies hostile to the world’s only majority Jewish state.

Article content

Article content

Article content

As NewsNation summarized last week, “the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is drawing new scrutiny after more than 35 DSA-backed candidates won primaries heading into the November midterms, forcing what analysts call an identity crisis inside the Democratic Party.” The DSA’s recently adopted platform, NewsNation added, calls for government expropriation of private corporations, state-owned housing, racial reparations, “universal healthcare at no cost to individuals,” the abolition of the Senate, and “a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital” after the end of “all military and economic aid to Israel.”

Article content

Those plans require government officials to seize a much larger share of Americans’ wealth than is now the case so they can enforce policies and target enemies. With their “influence on the rise” DSA candidates “are eager to tax the rich and enact anti-Israel policies,” notes The New York Times.

Article content

Article content

The radical candidates are winning for a reason — they’ve tapped into an ideological shift among Democratic voters. According to June YouGov/Economist polling, 58 per cent of Democrats have a favourable opinion of socialism. Sixty-two per cent would vote for a “Democratic Socialist” candidate.

Article content

Article content

Likewise, 58 per cent of Democrats in AP-NORC polling consider the U.S. “too supportive” of Israel, which 52 per cent of them say has committed genocide in its defensive war against Hamas. As CNN observes, “an ascendant faction of the left … sees opposition to Israel as a Democratic litmus test.” Many Jewish Democrats, CNN added, experience this as questions about their loyalty that have crossed the line into explicit antisemitism. “They point to references to Jewish or Israeli interests nefariously controlling politics with money or suggesting that Jews aren’t fully loyal to America or to Democratic values.”

Article content

The looming problem posed for this wave of radicals capturing Democratic nominations, and for the party they’re rapidly transforming, is that they’re veering far from the beliefs of the rest of the country. In that same YouGov/Economist poll, only 30 per cent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans had favorable opinions of socialism. Just 24 per cent of independents and 3 per cent of Republicans would be willing to vote for candidates espousing such views.