Commentary
When I read the headline, “Trump Opened the Window for the DSA,” in the Wall Street Journal, I was reminded of stories how Obama and Biden paved the way for Trump.
Specifically, “How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump,” in the May 13, 2025, issue of the New Yorker. While noting that in the June 27th debate against Trump, Biden’s decline was laid bare before the world.
“Biden had framed his entire Presidency as a pitched battle to prevent Trump from returning to the Oval Office. By not relinquishing power and refusing to be honest with himself and the country about his decline, he guaranteed it.” The New Yorker, May 13, 2025
The “window” the WSJ claims Trump opened for the Democrat Socialists is the Overton Window, named for political scientist James P. Overton, which highlights discourse of a spectrum of ideas that society deems unacceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.
With the success of DSA candidates, the party is compelled to accommodate views until recently not worthy of thought. Like Israel perpetrating “genocide,” the wealthy deserve to be taxed, and all deportations are wrong – according to the Journal, it’s their hatred for Trump that that has led to tolerate radical, vicious views that are colonizing the party.
“The only credential a Democrat candidate needs is having taken on Trump,” notes the Journal. Beneath the Trump bashing lurks a genuinely radical program that would have been a nonstarter in your grandfather’s Democrat party.
Asking rhetorically, what’s in the program the left has embraced under the banner of opposing Trump? Answer: A hard turn toward socialism dressed as “fairness,” with freebees.
On the heels of the New York wins for the DSA was the win in Colorado by Ethiopian-born socialist Melat Kiros over the progressive incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette. Her campaign focused on progressive issues such as Medicare for All, housing affordability, universal childcare, campaign finance reform, and an arms embargo on Israel.
Colorado, once considered red fertile ground, DSA organizer Caroline Belmont boldly said, “If we can do it here, we can do it everywhere.
A SIDE NOTE
Curious about the elements in the DSA logo, I learned that the red field is a traditional color of the socialist movement worldwide. It supposedly symbolizes revolution, solidarity, and the fight for social justice.
The two clasped hands – one white and one black–represent unity, solidarity, and mutual support. emphasizing racial and cultural inclusivity and the idea that democratic socialism is a movement for all people. The big tent.
“Traditional Democrats are now facing a hostile takeover from the socialist left, and so far, few are willing to put up a fight,” writes the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.
A recent Economist/YouGov survey asked respondents, “Would you ever vote for a candidate who identified as a “Democratic Socialist?”
While 85 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of independents said that they would not vote for socialists, 62 percent of Democrats said that they would. Among self-described liberals, the percent of support for socialism soars to 73 percent.
Even more alarming is the preference of Democrats for socialism over capitalism. Some 34 percent choose socialism while only 22 percent choose capitalism.
It seems to me that it’s the traditional Democrats who should be concerned with the “threat” of the Democrat Socialists, not the Republican Party. “If mainstream Democrats don’t retake their party, we may not recognize America the next time it wins a national election,” writes Mark Penn, long-time Democrat strategist and pollster.
I surmise that the headlines then will state how the progressive Democrats allowed Democrat Socialists to hijack their party, with words like “Americans Seal Fate of Communist Ideology in our Free Nation,”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
