By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Dems fight the socialists, but their real test is to disavow the ideology and remain viable
If you’ve paid attention to the election news from various sources lately, you’ve probably noticed that the Democrat Party establishment has started displaying a little verve in its battle to squelch the ongoing insurgency from proponents of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Establishment media members love sensation, and when they’ve exhausted their allotted bash President Donald J. Trump time, they switch gears to focus on the Democrats instead. As everyone realizes, the liberal party has been plagued by an insider takeover maneuver from Bernie Sanders’ minions, and the Democrat poohbahs are getting serious about it.
Democrats are refereeing a nasty political feud between the “free stuff” redistributionist liberal establishment party leaders and the avowed socialists who long for government takeover of everything from the means of production to American culture itself.
This new breed of Democratic Socialists plays for real, too. They talk a big game and are prepared to throw “traditional” liberals under the proverbial bus and don’t mind human-sized gaps in the tread streaks, either. “Regular” Democrats have flashed signals of renewed energy, however.
In an article titled, “The Democratic establishment fights back against the socialists”, W. James Antle III wrote at the Washington Examiner:
“…[T]he socialists aren’t giving up without a fight. Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and other progressive leaders remain all in for el Sayed in Michigan. They are coming off big wins in New York, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. Their preferred candidate made the Los Angeles mayoral runoff over Spencer Pratt.
“Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani looks ascendant. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) do not. They are not in as strong a position to influence primary outcomes as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was when he went up against the tea party as Senate Republican leader.
“A national Fox News poll found that Democrats view socialism more favorably than capitalism and mostly approve of the DSA. Can the Democrats’ old guard hold the line in this climate? We’ll soon see.”
The key point in the previous paragraph was the average Democrat’s apparent embrace of socialism, which indicates that the party’s rank-and-file considers socialism desirable. Many Democrats understand socialism’s connection to failure, but it doesn’t bother them.
Simply put, the new socialists/communists believe they can get socialism right and every other entity that’s ever tried it was misguided or failed to implement the systems correctly. Like redistributing the spoils from productive people (to non-productive deadweight) wouldn’t inspire resentment or jealousy. Or anger.
Socialism runs counter to human nature. It can’t work. It won’t work. You can’t make human beings agree to go against their own personal feelings and histories.
Perhaps after all that’s happened in the Democrat party in the past ten years, some perspective is needed on the faction’s current direction – or lack thereof. Think back to the lead-up to the 2016 Democrat state primaries when the party actually boasted several would-be presidential hopefuls to choose from.
The handful of non-Hillary candidates departed markedly from the accepted “coronation” narrative.
Remember Martin O’Malley (former Governor of Maryland), former senator Jim Webb (of Virginia) and Lincoln Chaffee (Governor of Rhode Island)? I don’t recollect much about anyone other than Webb, who, as memory serves, positioned himself as the “centrist” who attempted to tout reasonable Bill Clinton-like positions to the direction-seeking voters in order to try and recapture a little semi-southern “moderate” magic and somehow make headway in the rapidly moving-left party of Barack Obama.
Everyone figured Crooked Hill would win and be Obama’s successor. She had the purported bona fides, had served in an important high-visibility authoritative position recently and, of course, provided a name that practically everyone recognized. Plus, when prompted to explain how she differed from The Big “O”, the former Secretary of State instinctively replied, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m a woman!”
Roughly half of the Democrat primary voters weren’t fooled by Hill’s spell. Partly due to the prevailing ideological winds and partly due to the fact Hillary made most folks’ skin crawl, Democrats attached themselves to the lone legitimate Clinton alternative in the person of Crazy-eyed Bernie Sanders, the self-identified socialist from The Green Mountain State.
“The Bern” didn’t try to be something he wasn’t, and he didn’t invent stuff on the fly like every other Democrat employs as a butt-covering defense shield. A wise former employer of mine said there were three “message carriers” in the 2016 race, and none of them were named Clinton.
(Incidentally, the “message carriers” were Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and… Bernie Sanders.)
Democrats treated Sanders kind of like someone who thought they’d done themselves a favor by cleaning out their freezer only to find the rejected (and thawed) food stores had attracted an invasion of ants in the trash receptacle intending to stay and feast. Establishment Dems initially felt Sanders wouldn’t provide much resistance to the ascendance of the queen of American politics, the “next in line” Democrat and the coronation of liberal royalty.
Remember how Crooked Hill would adopt a phony new accent according to the audience she was speaking to?
Democrats were left with jaws agape as “The Bern” not only hung around, he ended up winning almost half of the Democrat state primaries and pushing Hillary nearly to the brink of being displaced by the avowed 
leftists years before political junkies even heard of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Face it. The preponderance of people who hear the full DSA term these days only recognize “Socialists” and the rest is deposited in their mental round file. It’s an association that, not too long ago, was near-universally regarded as unpleasant and unwelcome. Not any longer. Sanders merely articulated what Democrats like Crooked Hillary and Barack Obama have advocated for a long time, but dared not speak its “socialist” name.
Senile Joe Biden was probably the last of the “old-style” Democrats to win a presidential nomination in the current amalgamation of liberals and communists/socialists. Try as they might, the “new” Democrats are much closer in orientation to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.
These schleps don’t even pretend to be capitalist believers, and they favor using the government’s power to seize private property through public domain, control massive healthcare bureaucracies and deny citizens of their God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including the right to bear arms.
Democrat establishmentarians act as though they’d prefer to return to an era when they could push confiscatory taxes, impose intrusive economic regulations, decree anti-common sense energy policies and bash on law-abiding gun owners as if they were responsible for crimes involving firearms. “Old” Democrats never met a windmill or solar panel that they didn’t embrace.
Not to mention “old” Democrats could get away with supporting Israel because liberal Jews were big-time contributors to the party. “Chucky” Schumer is no longer the norm. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries isn’t even liberal enough for the communists/socialists.
Nancy Pelosi made a career of pretending to be “moderate” while stumping hard for every big government program she could wrap her talons around. Hillary Clinton did too. The white working class used to back Democrats, remember?
The rise of Donald Trump brought about an ideological shift in both parties. But Bernie Sanders did too, on the left side of the spectrum. Democrats want their narrative back. But they’re not about to get it.
Here’s thinking the 2028 Democrat presidential candidates will have to play to the Democratic Socialists to compete in the overall race. Kamala Harris is already doing it. Each contender will defer to the DSA platform in one way or another. Medicare for All will be a major plank, and they’ll call it “Making healthcare affordable.”
Expect the Dem candidates to really play up the “Make the Rich pay their fair share” entreaties to pit Americans against each other. Wealthy individuals will be portrayed as anti-American because they make money. Democrats will say the “rules of the game” were slanted by Trump.
Democrats will continue blaming Trump for the Iran War, though Trump did something about the perpetual threat from rogue Islamic regimes. Israel will be demonized.
The Democrat establishment will attempt to fix a message that resonates with “regular” Democrats while appeasing the socialist crowd at the same time. Talk about a balancing act. The Democrat circus has never seen such trapeze artists as what we’ll encounter in about a year’s time when the hopefuls get at each other. It’ll be fun to watch!
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .