PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A week ago, Maine Democrat Zak Ringelstein wasn’t quite ready to consider himself a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, even if he appreciated the organization’s values and endorsement in his bid to become a U.S. senator.
Three days later, he told The Associated Press it was time to join up. He’s now the only major-party Senate candidate in the nation to be a dues-paying democratic socialist.
Ringelstein’s leap is the latest evidence of a nationwide surge in the strength and popularity of an organization that, until recently, operated on the fringes of the liberal movement’s farthest left flank. As Donald Trump’s presidency stretches into its second year, democratic socialism has become a significant force in Democratic politics. Its rise comes as Democrats debate whether moving too far left will turn off voters.
“I stand with the democratic socialists, and I have decided to become a dues-paying member,” Ringelstein told AP. “It’s time to do what’s right, even if it’s not easy.”
There are 42 people running for offices at the federal, state and local levels this year with the formal endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, the organization says. They span 20 states, including Florida, Hawaii, Kansas and Michigan.
The most ambitious Democrats in Washington have been reluctant to embrace the label, even as they embrace the policies defining modern-day democratic socialism: Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition and the abolition of the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Congress’ only self-identified democratic socialist, campaigned Friday with the movement’s newest star, New York City congressional candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old former bartender who defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats last month.
Her victory fed a flame that was already beginning to burn brighter. The DSA’s paid membership has hovered around 6,000 in the years before Trump’s election, said Allie Cohn, a member of the group’s national political team.
Last week, its paid membership hit 45,000 nationwide.
There is little distinction made between the terms “democratic socialism” and “socialism” in the group’s literature. While Ringelstein and other DSA-backed candidates promote a “big-tent” philosophy, the group’s constitution describes its members as socialists who “reject an economic order based on private profit” and “share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.”
Members during public meetings often refer to each other “comrades,” wear clothing featuring socialist symbols like the rose and promote authors such as Karl Marx.
The common association with the failed Soviet Union has made it difficult for sympathetic liberals to explain their connection.
“I don’t like the term socialist, because people do associate that with bad things in history,” said Kansas congressional candidate James Thompson, who is endorsed by the DSA and campaigned alongside Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, but is not a dues-paying democratic socialist. “There’s definitely a lot of their policies that closely align with mine.”
Thompson, an Army veteran turned civil rights attorney, is running again after narrowly losing a special election last year to fill the seat vacated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Even in deep-red Kansas, he embraces policies like “Medicare for all” and is openly critical of capitalism.
Democratic socialism surging in the age of Trump
Other urls found in this thread:
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People associate it with strong, centralized statism, a logically incoherent distinction between property, and an unironic use of spooky terms like "society" and "social good".
Mind you, all of these associations are positive in the eyes of a parasite.
Gen Zyklon is already pilled
capitalism produces wealth even if it's mostly siphoned off by the elites and socialism doesn't.
no socialist society will last very long
USSR of A now
Can't wait until the day those same people realize that equal wealth means equally as worthless wealth tbh.
Even countries have equal wealth per capita– the difference is their power to deploy it efficiently that determines how awful their economy is.
socialism kills nice CIA or GCHQ post SAGE!
Capitalism did nothing wrong
This
This right here.
Yes, gather together…all the easier for me to street sweep the lot of you commie scum.
I laughed. great threads op. keep them coming.
You do realize that your mom is going to throw you out of the basement at some point right? Get a job fag
...
t. /leftycuck/
so we should open the camps? I mean it's not easy, but it is right
I don't get this. Is this so we associate Trump to the rise of socialism? Socialism has been on the rise since the 60's… It exists in almost any Hispanic/European country. And it's been evolving into Communism these two last generations. Millenials are the proof of this.
I have never met a democratic socialist who ever helped anyone poor or sick. The entire thing is designed to funnel money to small businesses owned by people who are LGBT, vegan, drug users, or racecard faggots. There are people living on sidewalks right now. Millions of liberal faggots walk past them every day. Billions of evil greedy christians have 500 billion vacant rooms yet none of them Help anyone because humans are fraud fucks.
No, it hasnt been evolving, it's the fucking goal to turn the world into global antmen
Yeah, let's see you try that in November.
Congrats for taking out Diane Feinstein, leftists.
Our turn.
But it is; except more like this:
t. weak-minded creature spewing shit
And as a parting note: if you're still such a man child, go ahead and shirk responsibility. Be alone in delusion, it's your life.
It's not our responsibility to care for you, soyboy.
Go cry to your momma.
I don't need you to. But other people will be strong enough to do the right thing, and you will be swept into irrelevance.
If you had a mother to cry to, you wouldn't be such a kid.
Which is why you always, every single time, have to force people to do it at the point of a gun, right?
None of this applies.
Here's the reality of it:
lol
people prefer pretty ideas over ugly realities
There are winners and losers in nature. Deal with it. Justice is a myth.
There are. I'm not arguing against nature. What I'm saying is this:
The position of strength is sacrifice.
The position of weakness is self-preservation.
And trust me; justice is just another extension of nature. The feeling manifests itself.
So that said, "deal with it" is a weak response.
Self-preservation is all nature cares about. What you call "sacrifice" means the unfit should survive at the expense of the fit which is unnatural and not how the universe is meant to work.
Nature is harsh. The universe is not here to serve you, fulfill you, or "sacrifice" itself for you, snowflake.
You are divorced from reality and from others.
If self-preservation was truly all nature cared about (Humans being a part of nature), we would not feel the desire for interaction; we would not seek the enlightenment and improvement of other people.
If you cultivate your cold inhumanity, you will die alone, pathological and steeped in hatred - and does that not mean you were unfit to survive?
Nature is harsh and I've become strong enough to garner the will to defend others. You have done nothing but fail.
It's not designed to do anything.
You're confusing things.
Money going into lgbt or vegan shops is capitalism in action. It's supply and demand 101. People want those things, therefore, money goes into those things.
Millennial culture is narcissistic and shallow, so it's no surprise people will want to virtue signal about how good of a person they are and how healthy their lifestyle is. If you do the opposite you're perceived as a bad person and shunned.
Christians having property and not sharing it with others is within their rights. But why did you attack them specifically? Look at how Arabic oil Lords rule their lands. Nobody is going to just give away empty properties they aren't using just because they aren't using them… You would atleast think about renting it.
You sound like a commie.
(((Ringelstein)))
What does interaction have to do with anything? Co-operation is also built into evolution as a survival strategy, but only because it's more likely to promote the survival of the species as a whole, not individual parasitic weaklings such as yourself.
Why would the survival of a species matter to someone engaged in self-preservation?
(For a weak person: possibly because the group surviving means their supposed survival, even if it isn't guaranteed.)
Pack behavior.
Why would Humans crave attention and approval?
Why would someone, who is supposedly a weak parasite, be looking to benefit others?
Do you know the definition of "parasite"?
You're responding on pure emotion and projecting your own parasitic nature. Accept yourself and become better.
Projection is strong in this one.
All your "arguments" boil down to overly emotional appeals and ad hom attacks.
Try formulating an actual argument based on scientific fact, not utopian fantasies.
If you need scientific fact to compensate for your lack of empathy towards other Humans outside of those who can directly benefit you, your life is meaningless.
There is no argument on your behalf, and so your response boils down to "u got proof?"
Reality is the proof. If you need data to determine that grass appears as green and the sky appears as blue, you need a brain.
wew lad. i think we're done here.
Socialism is nothing more than a quasi-philosophical front for what is in actual fact nothing more than an excuse for murdering and enslaving human beings. They're no different than pedophiles in how flimsy the reasoning is for how they are. At the end of the day, Socialists don't want your money. They don't want a 15 dollar minimum wage, or racial justice, or equality. What they want is to watch you suffer horribly before you die. They want to rob and rape your family. They want to watch you starve, alone and scared, while the Commissar stuffs his fat Jewish mouth with what little you had left. Don't be decieved by their propaganda.
feel the SURGE
We already have a "democratic" welfare state
t. didn't read the article and see that it wasn't about the Democratic Party, or is too emotionally-invested in screeching and flinging poo at the Other not to do it even where it makes no sense and comes off as retarded, or gets paid to do that
Protip, if you’re not part of the elite class (which you aren’t) then you’ve already been left behind. Keep telling yourself that you’re part of the “have” class as your paltry wages fail to keep up with inflation and drop to their lowest overall share of the economy in decades
No.
if it's self-evident it should be easy to prove then.
What is there to prove?
who it is you're talking to, for a start
Good, I'm a fan of NatSoc. Democratic Socialism is great when you have a dictator at the head
*dabs*
*tips*
*nods*
You're such a fucking faggot holy shit
...
lefty logic
Democrats = Socialists = Communists = NWO = Zionistsn = > All is becoming clear!
The Globalist NWO wants to rule over the world and eliminate/neutralize all counter-Therefore American Patriots/Nationalists must be silenced. Trump is our only and probably Last Chance.
A bad argument falls apart on its own, much like a house. If anyone is supposed to burden themselves with the effort of convincing you of anything (which, if you are willing to remain ignorant of instead of simply considering), why don't you burden yourself with proving me wrong?
Egalitarianism and social justice is what powers it.
Fed with lies about how it works, even though it has never worked. Socialism is how this country will become a 3rd world nation. It's coming whether we want it to or not, applauded and ushered in by morons.
still not an argument, try again
en.wikipedia.org
I'll wait.
perhaps you should read your own link then try to explain how it's relevant to my post
...
I hate the term “Democratic Socialism”, because most people, including Bernie Sanders, use it when they actually mean “Social Democracy”. Social Democracy is a system which actually has a proven track record in the most successful Western countries, unlike all forms of socialism.
Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, and more funding for higher education aren’t socialist ideas. It’s just regulated capitalism, and taxing some of the gains from a capitalist economy to re-invest back into society. None of this supports getting rid of capitalism, which is what real Democratic Socialists want.
It’s a shame that sensible socdem ideas like these are lumped in with retarded rhetoric about abolishing prisons and repackaged as “democratic (((socialism)))”. Now the baby is going to get thrown out with the bath water and we’ll never be able to talk about raising the minimum wage without being lumped in with the likes of Ocasio-Cortez and her open borders nonsense.
real life doesn't work like in your deluded alternate reality, sonny boy
Doesn't this mean there's going to be a split in the democratic party that will fuck the left for a decade?
good article
If you fail to see how it is unrelated and irrelevant, let me leave no question:
more word play in lieu of an argument.
keep going
Mirror.
try harder
(You)
that's a subtle admission of defeat, but i'll accept it
You defeated yourself today.