“Talk of popular control of the means of production is anathema to many older Democrats, even very liberal ones. It plays a lot better with the young; one recent survey shows that 61 percent of Democrats between 18 and 34 view socialism positively…”
(Ben Shapiro – Daily Wire) A few months ago, Hillary Clinton was asked about whether her self-identification as a capitalist had hurt her among members of her own core constituency. She said it had. She was right. And the Democratic Party is now moving openly in the direction of embracing socialism.
All of this follows what are, in any serious sense, relatively minor wins for self-proclaimed Democratic Socialists within the party. The momentum began with Bernie Sanders’ stunning 2016 presidential run, which galvanized young people in a way Hillary’s campaign never did. Sanders’ radicalism permeated the party and radicalized ambitious politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). But Warren and Booker and Harris and Gillibrand still don’t openly embrace socialism as a philosophy.
Not so with a few fringe members of the party getting outsized attention for winning primaries. These would be Summer Lee, 30, and Sara Innamorato, 32, and Elizabeth Fiedler, 37, all three of whom won nominations for the Pennsylvania State Legislature in the Democratic Party. And the latest and greatest of these emissaries of Marx is, of course, the media’s beloved Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, who just knocked off Joe Crowley in a primary vote in New York.