Anyone following the Knox County mayoral race knows that debates over socialism are no longer confined to the nation’s largest cities. Beau Hawk faces scrutiny over a 2020 trip to Venezuela
that critics claim demonstrates an allegiance to communism while his supporters emphasize the distinctions between socialism and communism. Has the specter of communism returned to haunt America, or do these fears merely represent a revival of Red Scare tactics?The Occupy protests, sparked by the 2008 bank bailouts, eventually paved the way for the presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist. Sanders’ focus on reversing economic inequality appealed to progressive millennials, who began embracing rather than rejecting the once-pejorative
socialist label.
Donald Trump’s 2016 victory deepened their dissatisfaction with establishment Democrats, driving them to support candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. When Joe Biden won in 2020, it appeared that the radical flank of the Democrats had fulfilled its task, and with it, the democratic socialist moment had come to an abrupt end.
Yet, Trump’s 2024 return to the White House blindsided liberals, reviving the democratic socialist movement. Driven by persistent socioeconomic concerns, this democratic socialist resurgence culminated in the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City.
So, is Hawk a socialist or a communist? The reality is he is neither, nor are his fellow democratic “socialist” comrades. They’re not calling for the dictatorship of the proletariat, a vanguard party, or the abolition of private property. Instead, democratic “socialists” around the country are New Deal capitalists using, in the era of Tik-Tok politics, radical rhetoric and iconography to distinguish themselves from establishment Democrats. Beyond the slogans and aesthetics, these young politicians are simply reintroducing the Keynesian policies of FDR, whom the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz famously claimed saved capitalism from the capitalists.
Grady Lowery, Knoxville, 37917
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Are 'socialist' candidates to be feared? No, and here's why | Letter
