As pollsters and prediction markets foresee a blue wave in the midterm elections, something worse might be percolating on Election Day: the possibility that Americans willfully elect several candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
The DSA and its local chapters have endorsed more than 130 candidates for local, state and federal office, and the group has taken sides on dozens of ballot measures. Its endorsements include familiar incumbents such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.
But on Nov. 3, a new crop of DSA-backed candidates could join them in Congress: Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania, Melat Kiros of Colorado, Donavan McKinney of Michigan, and Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire
Valdez of New York. Avila Chevalier, Kiros and McKinney each beat a Democratic incumbent in this year's primaries.
Candidates who embrace socialism are the biggest threat facing Americans today. I'm concerned that so many Americans are already buying into an agenda that sounds good but has a long record of failure. Americans must think twice at the voting booth and soundly reject every DSA-backed candidate, along with the Democrats aligned with them.
DSA-backed candidates truly embrace socialism
These candidates may be popular enough with voters to win their races, but their socialist views would do significant harm if put into practice.
Rabb raised eyebrows recently when he said he opposes incarceration – unless the people being locked up are his political opponents. “I’m a decarceration person. I believe a country that represents 5% of the world population but 25% of the people put in cages is morally wrong. It’s also bad policy,” Rabb said on Wajahat Ali’s podcast on Oct. 13. Then he carved out an exception for “lawless MAGA thugs.”
During the 2020 protests over George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, Avila Chevalier posted on social media that abolishing the police meant “no more police at all ever,” CNN reported.
Kiros told Colorado Public Radio she'd address affordability with a classic tenet of socialism: the idea that government can somehow provide everything for free: “For me, socialism is about making it clear that we have basic needs for every single human being, and that's housing, health care, nutritional food, public education, and – I think in this modern world – transportation and access to internet as well.”
Who, exactly, will pay for all this?
McKinney put it more bluntly in a May 5 appearance on the podcast “For the Sake of the Argument With Lori Goldman”: “I believe how I define politics is the redistribution of resources, black and white. There’s no gray area.”
What's the appeal of socialism?
Reading these statements (and many others like them), I confess I don't understand the appeal of politicians who want to turn socialist ideas into public policy. Many of those ideas sound a little too close to Karl Marx's vision of a classless society, with resources distributed according to the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Every time a society has tried it, it has failed.
Many Americans do see the appeal. A Gallup poll released in September found that a disappointing 43% of Americans – and 65% of Democrats – view socialism positively.
Young adults are the most enthusiastic: 57% of those ages 18 to 34 view it favorably, compared with just 34% of Americans 55 and older.
Some of that gap probably comes down to age and income, but education plays a major role, too. Younger Americans haven't been taught about the ills of socialism the way older generations were; instead, it's presented as equal, fair and a path to utopia. Public schools often teach capitalism not as something inherently and morally good, but as greedy, suspect and responsible for wealth disparity.
DSA-backed candidates aren't just Democrats with a different label, and their presence in the caucus will undoubtedly push the party even further toward their extreme ideas. Some Democratic leaders are already there.
In a September interview with “PBS News Hour,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked about the distance between party leaders and DSA candidates. “But not the ideas,” the Democratic governor replied, before adding, “I believe in universal health care, and I believe in Medicare for all.”
If it's about lowering costs, getting money out of politics and Medicare for all, Newsom said, “I think we're pretty aligned.”
There won't be enough DSA members in the next freshman class in Congress to make sweeping policy changes. But over time, they could push Democrats toward universal health care and day care, even higher taxes on the rich and “free” government programs that taxpayers end up paying for.
The DSA-backed candidates poised to win reject the ideas that made America the most successful nation in the world. They embrace an ideology that, if turned into policy, may drag the country into chaos and poverty. Voters can still reject them on Nov. 3.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Socialism is on the ballot. Americans must vote it down | Opinion
