America Flirts with Democratic Socialism
Recently, in primary elections in both New York and Colorado, self-professed Communist and Democratic Socialist candidates beat even progressive-wing candidates to claim Democratic nominations for office. The political wave is moving through the States. Today on Breakpoint, Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation, discusses how a Marxist worldview operates and why it matters that one of America’s political parties is being pushed in this direction. Here’s Dr. Patterson:
Today’s so-called Democratic Socialists like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have recognized some real problems in the bureaucracy: things like inefficiency, red tape, lack of accountability, and other problems in urban environments such as in Baltimore, New York, and Chicago. But they fail to recognize that it was their own progressive party’s imposition of bigger and bigger government, restrictions on private property and innovation, and efforts to create a class of citizens dependent on government that has caused the problems of bad government and high prices.
Should Americans be worried, or is this all just youthful enthusiasm? True, there is a faddish “pop Marxism” among many young adults and teens. It is cool to “rage against the machine” and even cooler to have government subsidize your college degree, housing, groceries, and transportation.
But there is something much more sinister going on. Americans should always ask three questions when considering any political candidate, platform, or party: Do we want statism or individual liberty with limited government? Do we want to buttress American institutions or attack them? And can we justify or denounce political violence?
Considering the first question, are the policies that Democratic Socialists advocate for designed to protect religious freedom, freedom of conscience, private property, the family, and private enterprise? Or do they rely on increasing state power to regulate social, economic, and political life? Remember, Marx said that control of the economy (Socialism) was the first step toward control of everything (Communism). It’s noteworthy that Democratic Socialists attack private property, an innovative business environment, and often call freedoms of religion and conscience smokescreens for superstition and intolerance of their progressive agenda.
Second, do Democratic Socialists defend our American constitutional order and its institutions, or do they attack them? Look out for those who call into question our Constitution, who advocate Supreme Court packing, and those who call outdated or illegitimate our modes of government (federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, democratic processes).
Third, do they justify violence or advocate violence? Radical socialism is always an “ends justify the means” worldview. Look at the environment we are in with multiple assassination attempts against a sitting president, violence and threats targeting Supreme Court justices, and all the destructiveness, from Occupy Wall Street to Seattle’s “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone”to anti-Semitism on American college campuses. So often, Democratic Socialists like Mamdani, NY’s Andrea Ocasio-Cortez, Colorado’s Melat Kiros, and Seattle’s mayor have justified such extremism.
The official Democratic Socialists of America website suggests major taxation and redistribution of wealth by unaccountable government bureaucrats to fund “universal public systems for healthcare, college, and housing.” It undermines America’s constitutional order by calling for dramatic changes to the Supreme Court and Congress and the elimination of the Electoral College.
Perhaps even more stunning? DSA calls for full voting rights for non-citizens, punitive taxation on “the richest earners,” and statehood for the city of Washington, DC.
What most of the candidates who call themselves Democratic Socialists also have in common is a fealty not to ecological conservation, but to the philosophically radical, budget-busting, so-called Green New Deal. Moreover, since the grotesque attacks of October 7, many have squarely sided with Hamas’ murderers rather than the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel. This latter movement has produced the return of an ugly anti-Semitism to American public life from the hard Left.
This year, we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, best expressed in the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. As Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, the Declaration was not fully realized in 1776 but was a promissory note to future generations that we must all be working to fulfill. The great American story is one of scars and triumphs in the general motion toward greater individual liberty and the full recognition of our common human dignity.
The Founders knew that unrestrained government power was the first enemy of freedom. The British government kept changing the social contract by waving trial by jury, quartering troops in private homes, appropriating private land and businesses, revoking the colonial charters, etc. Then, after a decade of taking more and more rights away from the colonists, the British killed citizens at Lexington and Concord, marking the start of the American Revolutionary War.
So, the Founders were determined to buttress individual rights, our federal system, private property, and other fundamental liberties. Today, we too must be on the lookout for those who advocate for a massive, unaccountable state, undermine our fundamental rights and institutions, and are willing to justify violence.
That was Eric Patterson, president of the Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation, Learn more about their work at vocmuseum.org.
Copyright 2026 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.
