OPINION:
The Democratic Party is having an identity crisis. To win elections, it must pose as moderately liberal. It is anything but.
The rise of Muslim/socialist Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nominee for mayor of America’s largest city shows how far left the party has plunged.
New York City voters may yet reject Mr. Mamdani, but he is favored right now to win in November. That would saddle the Big Apple with a functionally Islamic/communist regime.
Mr. Mamdani wants the government to take over vital services, including grocery stores and child care, and to provide free transportation. He says he will impose a rent freeze, which would reduce housing and create more slums.
Mr. Mamdani is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, who count on the media to conceal their Marxism. Although Mr. Mamdani slyly pushes the parts of the DSA agenda that most appeal to the Democrats’ Free Stuff Army, the mother ship is unabashedly communist, although they would reject that term as bad salesmanship.
As in Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto,” the DSA wants public ownership of the means of production, something Mr. Mamdani said needs “seizing.” The DSA calls for nationalizing railroads, utilities, tech companies and manufacturing — in fact, anything that creates wealth and jobs. The DSA also demands “social ownership” of the media and internet, which would turn America into a latter-day Soviet Union, whose state-controlled press covered up its failures and horrendous crimes.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which embraces the DSA’s policies, has nearly 100 members — nearly half the Democrats in the House — plus openly socialist Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent. Mr. Sanders and the Progressive Caucus are obsessed with the “1%,” the people who make billions of dollars providing things people want in America. Not so much concern is voiced about Russia or the “1%“ rulers of China, North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam and Cuba.
Like the former Soviet bloc, these regimes purported to be “for the people” and then turned murderous. All told, “socialist republics” have killed more than 100 million people, a conservative estimate. The Shiite Muslim government of Iran is also murdering its share of dissidents.
The DSA’s website prominently features Mr. Mamdani and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Democrat. She is a Muslim and vice chair of the Progressive Congressional Caucus who keynoted the 2025 Democratic Socialists’ convention.
The objectives of the Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Socialists are virtually indistinguishable from those of the Communist Party USA. “To solve the challenges facing humanity, we need to replace capitalism with socialism, a system of cooperation, democracy, and equality,” the CPUSA declared in its party program adopted on July 13.
The Communist Party backs key elements of the Democratic Party platform, including government monopoly health care and forcing the transgender madness onto schoolchildren.
Ms. Tlaib told The Guardian newspaper that “we need to replace capitalism with socialism, a system of cooperation, democracy, and equality.”
How about this one: “In overcoming the old, barbaric order of capitalism, the working class will not only liberate itself from its own shackles, but all of humanity from the parasitic death-drive of capitalism.”
It’s not from the communists. It’s from the 2021 Democratic Socialists platform.
Capitalism is not a system. It’s the market at work, supported by investment capital, labor and the protection of private property. Buyers and sellers operate under the economic law of supply and demand.
Prices reflect what people think a product or service is actually worth, not what a socialist regime tells them it’s worth.
Nations that embrace socialism become poor and tyrannical. Socialism’s only sure outcome is misery for the many under the power of the few.
The U.S. government enforces the rules of law and liberty better than most others. It’s why so much foreign investment comes into America from less-free countries.
The Bill of Rights safeguards property, religion, speech, the press, assembly and the right to petition. Lacking such protections, socialist governments inevitably turn to tyranny. A recent Gallup poll showed that more Americans, especially young people, are warming to socialism and rejecting capitalism. A significant number of the young, however, are rejecting campus indoctrination and rediscovering American exceptionalism and faith in the God of the Bible.
Much credit for this goes to Charlie Kirk, who in 2012 co-founded Turning Point USA, a conservative outreach to campuses. A devout Christian, Kirk helped launch a counterrevolution, teaching students how to answer lies. Unbelievably sharp and articulate, he posed a great threat to the left’s grip over students.
Last week, his powerful voice was shockingly silenced when a sniper shot him at a Utah college. Mr. Kirk, 31, left behind his wife and two young children.
Leaders of both parties rightly condemned the assassination. However, when House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked after a moment of silence to pause for a moment of prayer, a group of Democrats yelled, “No!” One of them screamed, “Pass some gun laws!”
The Democratic blogosphere was rife with unprintable comments about how Mr. Kirk had it coming.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democratic presidential contender for 2028, condemned the political violence but laid blame on President Trump, saying, “I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”
Even The Washington Post called that “a disgracefully ill-timed comment.”
It’s not about the timing.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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