Comrades, here comes the revolution

Brace yourselves for a political transformation that will completely reshape the American political landscape, throw away the U.S. Constitution, eliminate private ownership of corporations and real estate, and, as “Our Program,” published by the Democratic Socialists of America claims, build a new world.

Tellingly, the mainstream media are underplaying the story. They know the candidates identified with the Democratic Socialists of America, now winning major elections and primaries as Democrats, have signed on to a radical program of revolution. All they want you to know is that the resurgent left within the Democratic Party is riding high and winning big, especially among young voters. They are not telling Americans the real story.

The real story is that Marxist movements never really disappeared. In the United States, they could also never really win. The fall of the Soviet Union and the discrediting of communism was, we were promised, the dawn of a new day and, as one major thinker declared, “The End of History.” But the radical political left in the United States now sees itself as the wave of the future, and they intend to take over and use the Democratic Party as their (temporary) means of political advance.

The radical left in the United States had a hard time in the 1950s, with the true evil of Joseph Stalin’s regime in the U.S.S.R. and Mao’s revolution in China becoming clear. In the democratic West, the next decade saw the rise of a “New Left,” largely driven by Marxist ideology as interpreted by Western academics. Meanwhile, European Marxists had transformed themselves into what they called “Democratic Socialism,” which promised a radical Marxist vision that would emerge, not from violent revolution, but through the electoral process. The revolution would be voted into power.

In the United States, that approach came into organizational form through the leadership of Michael Harrington, who helped to draw together an older Marxist tradition with the New Left and its young activists. Formally, the new Democratic Socialists of America came into being in 1982. Little has been heard from them since, until recently. New York City now has an openly DSA mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Washington, D.C., is about to elect another. Sen. Bernie Sanders openly identifies with democratic socialist positions, and members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are formal members of the DSA. Candidates identified with the DSA are defeating established Democratic incumbents and running for broke, even in states like Michigan and Wisconsin. As DSA leadership now sees it, this is their great opportunity, and they are running hard.

The mainstream media have taken note, and they have often honestly reported the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. They can hardly miss it. At the same time, they have not drawn much attention to the DSA and its political aims. To the credit of the DSA party, they don’t hide behind a screen of smoke. They assert their aims clearly. As I said, brace yourselves.

According to their main platform, published as “Our Program,” the DSA promises a full revolution, Marxist style. They call for “ending capitalist oligarchy and creating a real democracy.” Just remind yourselves that “capitalist oligarchy” means private property. Addressing readers who will vote in the 2026 midterms, the document states: “Some of these demands may be won under the current system, but we know complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up.”

What would that mean? Well, buckle your political seat belts. They want to eliminate the police, empty the jails, socialize medical care and housing, and eventually take their revolution throughout the entire society. Their platform calls for “queer liberation” and and end to “patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth, and childraising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce.” They demand the full abolishment of the police and the prison system. They call for U.S. leaders to face internationally conducted criminal trials for human rights abuses. ICE is to be eliminated and borders are to be thrown open.

As for the nation’s constitutional system, nothing less than a new revolution will do. “Abolish the Electoral College,” they demand. With remarkable succinctness, they then make this astounding set of demands: “Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” They also demand the elimination of the Senate. As former DSA member Jake Altman summarizes, “The socialist candidates being swept into power want to dismantle American life. It’s all there in their new platform.” Yes, it’s all there. In truth, there’s a lot more.

Does the Democratic Party have a clue? Among DSA members, there is the common acknowledgement—made openly—that they are simply using the Democratic Party as a mechanism for gaining power. In truth, they hate the Democrats, or at the very least they hate most famous Democrats. Honestly, I cannot even use the language some of the current DSA candidates use to describe former President Joe Biden. Let’s just say they don’t like him, and they don’t like sell-outs like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama either. DSA sites and major figures openly speak of their disgust with most Democrats.

So why are they now using the Democratic Party for their aims? Because they openly recognize America’s two-party system, and they see the Democrats as old, out date, out of touch, and ripe for the taking. There is candid discussion about how long they may have to run as Democrats. They publicly call for the firing of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as soon as they can pull it off. They plan to push within the Democratic Party until that party breaks, and a new socialist age begins.

On the DSA site, an article entitled “Towards a Presidential Platform” states, “we’ll sweep to power using presidential politics to help trigger an avalanche of working class struggle, and rip up the old rulebook.”

That “old rulebook,” I remind you, is usually called the Constitution of the United States of America. Comrades, you have been warned.