Maybe it’s time to stop mincing words about the stunning leftward turn of the Democratic Party by using descriptions such as progressive, socialist, democratic socialist, and the like. For the most part, purveyors of the far-left ideology ascendant in the party of government adhere to many or most of the principles of communism, or in some cases are themselves outright communists. No matter the descriptor, it’s all about collectivism, whose “warmth” in contrast to the “coldness of rugged individualism” was touted by quasi-communist darling and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
This growing embrace of far-left candidates by rank-and-file Democrats is grabbing headlines in the battle for control of the Senate, and for good reason. In addition to demonstrating a growing appetite among frustrated grassroots Democrats for drastic measures to counter the GOP’s grip on the trifecta of power, it takes the party’s radicalism to another level. While we have certainly seen far-left candidates such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar win seats in individual House districts with favorable demographics, it’s quite another thing when such candidates reach for the Senate, as they are in Maine and Michigan. It elevates the aspirations of the far-left flank of the party to greater heights.
Proud Communism
As the Soviet Union was rising during the 20th century, menacing the West while imprisoning half of Europe and slaughtering and starving tens of millions of its own people, calling someone a Communist in the American political arena was the most vicious accusation imaginable. Those were fighting words, but also the quickest way to vilify an enemy as evil, unpatriotic, and traitorous. Especially during the 1950’s, the era of Joe McCarthy, any revelation that a person had communist associations or sympathies was the equivalent of a scarlet letter emblazoned on their head. Even calling oneself a socialist, i.e., quasi-communist, was a ticket to defeat until the rise of BLM and the onset of the Biden era.
But now, a stunning two-thirds (66%) of Democrats view socialism favorably, while only 42% hold a positive opinion of capitalism, according to the latest survey by Gallup. Enough said. Democrats thus seem intent on proving that even catastrophic forms of governance mercifully discarded in the ash heap of history can have a half-life. Taking advantage of America’s undereducated and over-indoctrinated young who have scant or warped knowledge of the past, a bevy of communistic challengers is filling primary and soon general election ballots from Maine to Michigan and beyond.
In this year’s midterms, the Dems have the tailwinds of history but also the headwinds of high disapproval and gerrymandering as they seek to take over the House. It may not be quite the slam dunk they previously expected. That makes control of the Senate all the more important for Democrats, who would undoubtedly employ their newfound power to reject most if not all of President Trump’s judicial nominees and stop the Trump agenda dead in its tracks.
Communists in the Senate?
Two of the Senate seats up for election this fall that are crucial to the Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of the upper chamber are in Maine and Michigan. And yet Democrats in both states are on the verge of nominating candidates who are far outside the mainstream. Graham Platner in Maine is a bizarre self-proclaimed communist who for almost two decades sported a Nazi tattoo – yes, a communist and a Nazi – until he was outed for it in the heat of the current campaign. Of course, he says he didn’t realize the tattoo had anything to do with Nazis, even though such information is widely available. And he said that when he called himself a communist a few years ago, he was “just kidding.” Right. But he supports the full quasi-communist agenda. Nevertheless, Platner drove the sitting governor out of the race and holds a massive, virtually insurmountable lead in his quest to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The Democrats’ de facto ombudsman who has broken with the progressive left, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), finds the rise of Platner and other hard leftists deeply disturbing: “I mean, in Maine … Graham Platner, he’s an avowed communist. He described himself as a communist. Antifa, that’s not a slur from me. That’s not a GOP kind of hit. That’s his own words,” Fetterman told Fox News.
Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan is a thinly veiled Islamist antisemite who has campaigned alongside a far-left influencer, Hasan Piker, who once stated that “America deserved 9/11.” Provided a recent opportunity to renounce his close association with Piker, El-Sayed refused. He has for years described himself as a physician — but there is apparently overwhelming evidence that he’s had no experience as a licensed medical doctor. “The perception in Michigan is that he is, at least at one point in his life, a licensed physician,” Chris Dewitt, an unaligned Democratic strategist based in Michigan, told Politico. “That apparently is not the case, and it blows up a big part of his campaign.” And yet, Mr. El-Sayed is leading by an average of almost five points in the Democratic primary.
The most visible gains for the socialist-communist wing of the Democratic Party are at the municipal level, with New York and Seattle both electing full-on socialist mayors. But at the national level, an ever-growing number of Democrats are proclaiming themselves as socialists, with a total of 30 candidates in 12 States running for the House or Senate classified as progressive/socialist, according to leftist-candidates.com.
How did we get here? Well, it dates back to Barack Obama’s call for the fundamental transformation of America in 2008, but it was when the country went mad in 2020 that the long-disgraced socialist/communist agenda was kicked into overdrive.
BLM Made Marxism Great Again
Trained Marxists. Those words should have sent chills up the nation’s collective spine when they were dug out of the archives, spoken by Patrisse Cullors, founder of Black Lives Matter, which exploded onto the national landscape during the George Floyd affair. Suddenly, adherents to the most vile form of totalitarianism were in rapid ascent, masking their cultural Marxism with self-righteous, self-serving platitudes about systemic racism and their own superior moral character. Meanwhile, riots they directly inspired overtook the land, dozens were killed, businesses were looted, and communities were destroyed.
The subsequent prize for the far left was four years of a sweet BLM embrace by Joe Biden and the progressives running his administration, leaving the country at the mercy of wokeness bordering on insanity: DEI mandates, a sudden explosion of gender confusion, mutilation of underaged children, biological males welcomed into women’s sports, and the ultimate – the assertion that men can get pregnant. But while Trump’s return to the Oval Office has plunged a stake near the heart of the madness, widespread remnants remain and have undoubtedly stoked the subsequent rise of extremism – and yes, communism – coursing through the veins of today’s Democratic Party.
