For the first time in years, the question is no longer whether the left can win. It is whether the Democratic Party can survive its own left wing. By nightfall Thursday, the Democratic Socialists of America had cemented control of two of the nation’s largest city halls — Seattle and New York — and claimed multiple Democratic primary victories for Congress.
The group, which critics describe as a far-left special interest whose ideas “are not far from communism,” has pushed past the margins of protest politics and into the machinery of governance. President Donald Trump has issued warnings.
But the alarms that matter most are coming from inside the party. Longtime Democrats are now voicing concern. The unease is familiar.
It is the same creeping dread that has surfaced before, whenever a faction rises fast enough to pull the party’s center of gravity leftward. Only this time, the faction is not just pulling.
It is winning. The Democratic Socialists of America began as a relatively small activist network. That is no longer the case.
Over recent election cycles, the group has transformed into a force capable of winning primaries and claiming major city halls. Seattle’s mayor and New York’s mayor both trace their political roots to the DSA. In Congress, the group’s primary victories have sent a message to establishment Democrats: the old guard’s grip on the party’s nominating process is slipping.
What is at stake is control of the party itself. Primary victories are not symbolic.
They determine who carries the Democratic label in general elections. When the DSA wins a primary, the party’s voters have chosen a candidate who answers to a network that critics call extreme. That candidate then faces the general electorate carrying the party’s banner.
If they win, they govern. If they lose, the seat goes to a Republican.
The risk is concrete. A party that nominates candidates whom general-election voters reject loses elections. A party that loses elections loses power.
A party that loses power cannot advance any agenda, moderate or progressive. The scene is a familiar one in American politics. A faction on the rise.
Longtime party members watching with a mix of dread and disbelief. The difference this time is the scale.
The DSA has already installed officials in several prominent positions. The mayoral offices in Seattle and New York are held by DSA-affiliated figures. The group has won multiple Democratic party primaries for Congress.
Its influence reaches well beyond city hall. President Trump is warning that the leftists are not stopping there.
But the more telling development is that the worry is no longer coming only from the right. Now, Democrats themselves are starting to express alarm about the future of their own party as the DSA’s footprint expands. That alarm is not abstract.
It is about what happens next. The DSA’s primary victories have shown that the old guard’s grip on the nominating process is slipping. If that grip continues to slip, the party’s center of gravity will keep moving left.
Some traditional Democrats believe that shift will cost them seats. Others fear it will cost them the party.
Neither outcome is certain. Both are now possible in a way they were not five years ago. The Democratic Socialists of America, described by critics as a far-left special interest group, have already installed officials in several prominent positions.
The mayoral offices in Seattle and New York are now held by DSA-affiliated figures. The group has also won multiple Democratic party primaries for Congress, signaling a growing influence that reaches well beyond city hall.
President Donald Trump is warning that the leftists are not stopping there. But the more telling development, residents describe, is that the worry is no longer coming only from the right. Now, Democrats themselves are starting to express alarm about the future of their own party as the DSA’s footprint expands.
The scene is a familiar one in American politics: a faction on the rise, pushing the party’s center of gravity leftward, and longtime party members watching with a mix of dread and disbelief. The Democratic Socialists of America, which began as a relatively small activist network, has over recent election cycles transformed into a force that can win primaries and claim major city halls. Seattle’s mayor and New York’s mayor both trace their political roots to the DSA.
In Congress, the group’s primary victories have sent a clear message to establishment Democrats: the old guard’s grip on the party’s nominating process is slipping.
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