Tough Times for Socialists
We hate to see it, but the Democratic Socialists of America have run out of money.
Socialists in America are in trouble.
No, we’re not talking about run-of-the-mill, wealthy Democrats who pretend to be socialists, but real card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America. They’re the fringe of the leftist fringe.
Most people probably don’t even know the DSA is a real organization. If it weren’t for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez giving the group some publicity in recent years, it would exist in the dark shadows where it belongs.
As a little refresher, the DSA promotes a platform that former leaders of the Soviet Union could only dream about: dismantling free market capitalism, freeing hardened criminals from prison, guaranteeing free rent, dissolving our national borders, confiscating private property, instituting socialized medicine, and mandating the “green” agenda.
Sounds like a recipe for destroying a prosperous country, and maybe that’s the plan. But there’s one problem keeping the DSA Bolsheviks from pursuing that plan: They’re broke.
As the New York Post reports, “The DSA — which has led protests against Israel over the Jewish state’s retaliatory response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack — is deep in a seven-figure hole and desperately in need of a way to stanch the red ink, members acknowledge.”
Consequently, it’s doing what organizations do in the real world when they can’t pay their bills: cutting expenses and considering layoffs. The Post adds, “The situation appears to be a case of an organization that blindly seeks utopia and professes support of the working class clashing with reality — forcing it to have to balance a budget like the rest of America and even contemplate layoffs hated by labor unions.”
DSA leaders are scratching their heads as to why they can’t balance the books or find more support. “We’re living in a moment,” they argue, “when revived labor struggles and the fight for a free Palestine are galvanizing so many Americans, particularly young people. Biden’s disastrous policy of fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza has created the kind of space for an independent alternative from the Democratic Party that has not existed since Bernie.”
In case you forgot, Bernie Sanders is the mega-rich socialist from Vermont who’s made a life’s work out of spending other people’s money.
Members of the DSA National Political Committee also shared some grim fiscal news: “The current deficit will force us to make seven-figure budget cuts. This will require us to make painful decisions that will impact all levels of the organization. … Given our current financial state, we do not believe we can have a healthy, democratic, and effective organization while spending the amount we currently do on staff.”
Lack of funding isn’t the DSA’s only problem. Its blind support of Hamas went too far for Maurice Isserman, a founding member who left the organization last fall. Writing in The Nation, Isserman said, “An organization that can’t take a stand condemning a right-wing terrorist group that set out to murder as many Jewish civilians, including children and infants, as it can lay its hands on, has forfeited the right to call itself democratic socialist.”
It’s a fair assessment of what the DSA has become, which is nothing more than a front for Hamas.
Another issue hurting the DSA is the fact that its most famous and outspoken member, the aforementioned AOC, continues to face criticism from socialists over her support for the policies and reelection campaign of Joe Biden.
Think about that: Joe Biden is too far right for the DSA.
When all is said and done, the pro-Hamas tunnel vision of DSA leadership and its continuing support of policies that would make Karl Marx blush might bring about an end to an organization that’s gone too far left for its own good.