Socialism is to communism as simmer is to boil.
If America is in crisis (and when is it not?), it has little to do with the price of hamburger, the Straits of Hormuz, or algae in the reflecting pool. Our biggest threat is the surrender of a major political party to intolerant, enterprise-sapping socialists. This week in New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s collectivists captured three congressional races — two of them from incumbent mainstream Democrats — and a number of state legislative seats. In so doing, they overcame the opposition of House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in his own backyard. Just when you thought Democrats couldn’t veer any farther Left!
These are not the “sewer socialists” who created Milorganite in Milwaukee.
The Mamdani putsch is a hostile takeover of a party that, back in the day, could elect a Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a Bill Proxmire. The socialist triumph can only put wind in the sails of Wisconsin’s democratic socialist candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, who is running on the Democrat(ic) ticket.
Socialists are economic illiterates
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood recounted how the two criminals went tap-tap tapping on the walls of the Clutters’ farmhouse futilely looking for that wall safe stuffed with cash. A fellow inmate had told them the farm family was wealthy and they wanted some of it.
The criminals were too stupid to realize the money was in the machinery, the livestock, and the land — the means of production. Mamdani socialists express the same ignorance but employ more refined methods of thievery with better optics.
The genius of America on its 250th anniversary has always been about savers, strivers, and creators — Benjamin Franklin and Henry Ford but also the immigrant “yearning to breathe free” who learned the language and worked two jobs to put himself through night law school — not redistributionist demagogues like Huey Long and Bernie Sanders.
Did Zohran Mamdani devise reusable space rockets that land themselves? Did A.O.C. popularize electric vehicles? Did Francesca Hong create Star Link? Is Elon Musk an asset or a liability?
That Elon Musk is wealthy impoverishes no one.
Stealing someone else’s work
Like carnival barkers, Zohran Mamdani, A.O.C. and Francesca Hong gull the suckers about all the good stuff they could get after they commandeer Elon Musk’s trillions. Free child care for children you couldn’t afford to raise, government-paid tuition for grievance studies majors, a guaranteed wage for unmotivated employees, government-run grocery stores, reparations for ancient wrongs. What part of “free” do you not understand?
→ “There are many Mamdanis popping up across the country.” — Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of Reps
→ “This is not your father’s’’s Democrat(ic) party.” — House whip Steve Scalise
→ “Al Qaeda wins New York primary.” — Babylon Bee
The pro-Hamas caucus
According to the essential Jonah Goldberg, one of Mayor Mamdani’s socialists, Darializa Avila Chevalier “is all for abolishing prisons, eliminating the police, erasing the border, legalizing prostitution, controlling prices to deal with inflation, and nationalizing vast swaths of the economy, including seizing property from landlords.”
If Wisconsin’s Francesca Hong disagrees with any of that, she should say so now. Their foreign policy comes down to this: Death to Israel. Back to the Democrat’s nominee for congress, Ms. Chevalier:
Of course, she hates Israel with blinding passion (she thinks Bernie Sanders is too Zionist). When Hamas launched its pogrom of rape and murder, she was one of those people who immediately attended that pro-Hamas rally the next day — while the raping and murdering had not yet abated. But she also thinks America is a “f—ing disgrace.” — Jonah Goldberg
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Francesca Hong reads from the same little red book. We’re guessing the socialist success in New York will temper the tongues of Rep. Hong’s five competitors for Wisconsin governor on the Democrat(ic) ticket. Like Bob Dylan’s weatherman, they know which way the wind is blowing.
29 responses to “Democrats are now, officially, the party of socialism”
“Legalizing prostitution”??? Not enough!! Make it free!!!!
Karl Marx is smiling!
Sounds much like the Holodomor my wife’s great-grandparents went through. We have to acknowledge these evil ways and tell society “not on our watch”.
Mamdani’s communist ideas would by themselves be horrible but laughable. We could sit back and wait for them to produce the inevitable morass. Envy of the rich is what motivates all that. But what supercharges it, I believe, is the Jew hatred. It is the Jew hatred that unites these pampered lefties with the truly dangerous Islamists in the rapidly developing Red-Green alliance (the “Green” part being Islamist fanatics, not enviros). One of the NYC elections makes this crystal clear — ultra radical Brad Lander’s defeat of Dan Goldman. Both are Jews. Both are liberal-left Democrats in every way, both are even critics of Israel. There is ONLY one difference: Goldman does not accept the “genocide” slander directed at Israel. A normal Democratic insurgent effort to move the party to the left would never have mounted a campaign against Goldman. He is one of them in almost every way. There is only ONE issue that justifies what Mamadani’s troops did — hating Israel and the Jews enough.
Meanwhile, here is how Mamdani described AIPAC (as ordinary an American political Pac as you could ask for), whom he labeled “monsters”:
“They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another.”
After ten years of over-the-top nonsense about Trump as Hitler, this one sentence is as close to what Adolf would have said as anything you can find anywhere in American political discourse these days (unless you include the insane rantings of Tucker Carlson and his mercifully small, I hope, rightwing Jew hating followers. Wake up call. That’s what all this is.
Let us not forget our very own Mark Pocan (D-Hamas) who famously said: “F— AIPAC”.
I like how you eschewed the euphemism “anti-semitism” for its naked truth: Jew-hatred.
Some editorial corrections to misstatements in the piece:
1. Capitalism is to fascism as simmer is to boil.
2. The genius of America on its 250th anniversary has always been about slavers, schemers, and financiers.
3. Did Elon Musk devise reusable space rockets that land themselves, create electric vehicles, or create StarLink? No, workers did. That Elon Musk is wealthy lessens the deserved wealth of the people who actually did work to create these products.
4. The investor exists to Steal someone else’s work.
People who Work: The socialist does not want to take your money. They want your boss and his investors to stop taking your money. They applaud a rich worker so long as they do it through honest work, without skimming off their employees’ labor and ideas. The socialist doesn’t steal your money to provide free stuff like roads and schools, the socialist wants us to democratically agree to pool our resources as needed to provide services and infrastructure to meet public needs unmet by the free market.
Epstein isn’t an anomaly, he’s an archetype for how the richest among us commandeer wealth. He never engaged in productive work, yet he was wealthy beyond comprehension. There are thousands still sitting around just like him, reaping billions in investment income – sucked directly from your labor. They’ve even pitted a worker’s future self against his current self by making his retirement dependent on the success of their schemes. The investor warns, “I get rich without working, or we all go down!”
Yes, Rs, keep defending the noble and deserved wealth of the Epstein class! Serve them, and keep the socialists at bay. For where would we be without their pleasure and leisure?
See, this is what I mean. You start by using Elon as your prime rapacious parasitical capitalist. A trillionaire. Yet you cannot resist the fashion now of the Jew haters by labeling Elon’s class the “Epstein Class” instead. Epstein’s worth was never even close to one billion dollars. But the Jew haters have concocted the ludicrous notion that he was a Mossad agent. So, the “Epstein Class conveniently conflates capitalism, Jewish capital, Jewish pedophilia and all the other vile slanders of Jews and Israel the left now indulges.
Meanwhile, please explain how “the workers” devised those reusable rockets. Did they share ideas about reusable rockets in struggle sessions until one of the rockets simply manifested itself? Like all good Marxists, you simply disregard the role of entrepreneurial management as if it adds no value. Which is exactly why communist systems of production produce shortages, long lines and shoddy goods.
I kept expecting Rollie to launch into a diatribe against “rootless cosmopolitans” (Stalin’s euphemism for Jews).
I mentioned Musk as a direct response to the host’s comments about him. Epstien-Class is a meaningful symbol that’s not related to one race or religion. The coverup by this group of people symbolizes the leisure and impunity wealthy investors (of many races and cultures) enjoy at the expense of the rest of us. The salacious and famous existence of the Epstein case and files, and the vast network of powerful people associated with him leads to using him as a symbol, it has nothing to do with his ethnicity.
But, in the spirit of respect, I’m open to using another term that conveys the same meaning without the implications you inferred. I’m sorry I was offensive, and from here on out I’ll use whatever term you find inoffensive, just let me know some ideas, please. I’m anti-racist and open to modifying my language to minimize racial/cultural undertones. I look forward to conservatives holding not just me, but other conservatives to that same standard.
I need not explain how workers make rockets, that’s evident and was a strange point to make. Marxists do not want to rid workplaces of managers. If a manager is performing valuable work, no coworker would want to be rid of the manager, that’s silly. I’m taking about people who don’t work, yet make money (often far more money than workers). And tangentially, talking about people who preform little productive work, yet due to positionality and corruption make far more money than other workers. It’s easy to identify these people, just ask the workers themselves who’s pulling their weight and earning their pay.
First, on the term “the Epstein Class,” you are in denial. It is a perfect manifestation of the close link that has ALWAYS existed between hatred of rich capitalists and hatred of rich Jews. Marx’s venomous antisemitism was itself a part of his notions of capitalist parasitism from the start (see his characterization of rival socialist Lassalle as a typical Jewish leper “descended from the Negroes who joined in Moses’ flight from Egypt.” as quoted in Paul Johnson, “History of the Jews,” page 350). The phrase “the Epstein Class” is a perfect example of the current return of the repressed antisemitism that has been at the heart of far-left ideology from its origins.
As to those self-landing rockets, again, as I said, you dismiss the role of the entrepreneurial capitalist. In every society, someone has to decide how resources get organized to be put to one use or another. The fact is as clear as day to anyone who is not a Marxist ideologue that self-landing rockets got produced because of Elon Musk’s creative uses of his wealth. Perhaps you think the collectivity of workers would have ultimately come up with the idea anyway, like the monkeys typing Shakespeare. But that is not how any creatively innovating society like ours has ever worked. In the film Gorky Park, inspector Renko (William Hurt) ask NYC detective Kirwill (Brian Dennehy) who is working with him to find out why spots of chicken and fish blood were on some key evidence. Kirwill says “I’ve been in your wonderful Soviet grocery stores, but I’ve never seen anything fresh enough to bleed.” So much for “the workers” making all the rockets.
Jon Burack,
Again, please let me know an acceptable term to use. Clearly it’s absurd to argue that a person can’t refer to wealthy investors as a group without being inherently anti-Semitic. I guess I’ll say entrepreneurial capitalist for now, it has an air of nobility.
I think Marx had a lot of terrible qualities, just like all historical figures. Yeah he was racist. I don’t deify him. He did have a few insights though. If we’re going to ignore all writings from racists, let me know, I’m on board – this’ll be interesting.
Lots of great things in world history have been invented without the guidance of an entrepreneurial capitalist. In fact, given that the entrepreneurial capitalist has led us to the doorstep of extinction, and is now selling us the solutions to the problems they sold us before, we might be better off long-term by not having unaccountable psychopaths driven by greed and short-term profit motive leading our economy.
I hope you’re a campaign strategist. Painting workers as monkeys at typewriters is a fantastic way to combat socialism. The D ad will show a man lounging beachside, checking in on his investment accounts. The R ad will show a factory full of monkeys being guided by the wisdom of the man seen previously beachside. Where would we be without him? Nothing but savages, am I right?!
The worker doesn’t see themselves as better than the entrepreneurial capitalist, while the entrepreneurial capitalist certainly has an absurd Atlas-Shrugged-ian distorted view of their own superiority and a distain for monkey-workers. News flash: Hank Rearden is a fictional character. You’re not him, and neither is Musk or Trump or Epstein.
“the socialist wants us to democratically agree to pool our resources”
I feel the same way about Jeff Bezos. Our combined net worth is 245 billion dollars.
Wow, Rollie! What a terrible country you must think these United States of America! And they’re out of paper towels in the men’s room! (Regarding the “workers” who devised rockets that can land themselves — they’re all millionaires thanks to the capitalist stock market.)
Not sure what the comment about paper towels means? I’m happy to take turns with my coworkers and clean the bathroom – is custodial work some sort of insult in your view? Are you above that?
I don’t have any insight into the structure of that workplace, but if the workers at SpaceX who made the rockets have fairly shared in the ownership of the fruits of their labor, that’s great! Perhaps they are the vanguard, I’m really happy to see that you respect that approach to labor. While I would support abolishing the stock market as we know it, if I were on a team that had a chance to sell our collective ownership for billions, I’d probably do it too. Don’t hate the player, hate the game!
Cooperative ownership is a great model that I think should be used more. If SpaceX attracted talent by offering collective ownership, they’re already embodying the spirit of socialism. I hope that they extend the concept to all the workers on their team, and I hope more workplaces follow that example. It’s notable that a staunch critic of socialism like Musk would recognize that a collective-ownership approach is essential for attracting top level talent. I hope those stockholders recognize that they could build stronger sub-teams with the same approach.
Remember, Marx supports and celebrates productive enterprise, provided that the enterprise minimizes exploitation!
Scott Paper once put out an ad suggesting that lack of paper towels in the men’s room fostered bolshevism.
If you’re that envious of Musk’s wealth or status, then go build more successful businesses than him. But then, envy, jealousy, and loathing of success are cornerstones of socialism. Find me a socialist who has similar accomplishments as putting electric vehicles on the road, private citizens in space, and internet in the wilderness and I’ll take its perceived merits more seriously. Much easier to find socialists who were mass-murdering psychopaths.
This country was founded on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Socialist states have remarkably poor track records for all three. No thanks.
Interesting post, Mordecai. Vaguely Ayn Randian, reminiscent of her novel “Atlas Shrugged”.
Yet again, claiming that I’m jealous of rich leeches. Are cons jealous of people on welfare? No? Well, I’m not jealous of the folks on rich-person welfare either. It’s amazing that saying that all people should work for money is such a touchy subject for cons when it was their own anti-welfare rallying cry.
Hilarious and insightful that all the accomplishments of Musk touted by cons are essentially products of socialism. Electric vehicles, space exploration, internet apps, satellite communication – the expensive groundwork for all these industries was the product of socialist philosophy. The government paid non-rich researchers to figure out all the fundamental scientific and technological problems, and the entrepreneurial capitalist swoops in at the tail end to privatize the fruit of that labor and get rich. Story as old as time – socialize expenses, privatize profits.
Atlas Shrugged is fictional. Or at least, the rich heroes of the story have yet to exist, while the rich looters and moochers exemplifying the worst of the class remain in charge. On that much Rand was right, and I don’t see Musk et al as Rearden or Mulligan types (though that is the fundamental myth they depend on). I do understand why Rand views the worker with such contempt, but that’s more her own personal issue than an accurate assessment of the common man. I don’t think the USSR was great either, but I blame a different aspect of humanity than she does for its crimes.
Atlas Shrugged is a “makers and takers” novel, penned by a writer who fled Stalinist Russia. A fascinating read.
Americans are both makers and takers. Most of us work during our lifetimes to produce goods and services, then retire to take Social Security and/or other government benefits, such as Medicaid.
The filthy rich? The Trump crime family is using the Presidency to negotiate deals abroad and further enrich themselves. Elon Musk took a symbolic chainsaw to the working class. Bad optics. Musk and other massively wealthy fat cats often appear to be productive; whereas the Trump spawn operate strictly on greed. Prime examples include destroying wetlands in Scotland and on an island off the coast of Albania in order to build luxury golf resorts. There have been huge protests in Albania against this development, however, the President of Albania is a Trumper. Stay tuned.
Yes, because building what Musk has is so damn easy. Go do that and tell us all about it. It’s his fault for marketing ideas and technology, charging what the market will bear, and succeeding at it. You’d have an argument if Musk put a gun to people’s heads and made them work for him or buy his products. He hasn’t. Heads of socialist states have. I don’t care to emulate him or amass his wealth, but I recognize the toil that’s involved.
Using government benefits after paying into them all your life isn’t taking. That’s collecting on an investment.
The USSR wasn’t smart enough to pivot away from socialism. Sweden shows more promise.
Moving on from lauding Musk for “his” inventions to lauding him for his salesmanship and the “toil” of all that bs’ing! Now we’re getting somewhere. No, I don’t have to emulate a swindler to have a right to criticize one.
You act like socialist states are the only ones to commit atrocities, and therefore socialism = atrocity. Yeah, if we implement socialized health care we’re on the road to mass murder!! That’s absurd on its face; I should expect a stronger logic from you, but despite getting called out on this absurd claim previously you go ahead and repeat it. Shall I draw up a list of capitalist atrocities to “prove” that capitalism means murder?
I just saw the news that billions more dollars of socialist handouts are being funneled to our farmers. It seems like our entire food system has been corrupted by socialism! The socialist menace has even infected our President!! You all must be furious! Right…?
Nope they are the party of jack booted communist thugs!
And if you REALLY want to hate America… be Rollie.
David,
Here’s the blog post that I’ve been working on for about a week, it’s similar to yours.
The Absurd 21st Century Political Shift of the Democratic Party
Excerpt…
My honest take is a perfect storm made this inevitable. The storm was created by:
– The US dollar being the world’s reserve currency. It’s why manufacturing was sent off shore.
– The US dollar not being hard money. Its value has been continuously debased through inflation. The financial crisis and pandemic response have accelerated it. Asset holders are rewarded. People selling their time have been devastated.
– The politician class abandoning basic long term economic principles to get elected. And it’s a logical choice as they would be unelectable if they didn’t. The enemy is us.
– Too many people in the workforce who have no real skills. They don’t provide value. DEI departments are a great example as well as most people with the title “scrum master”.
It’s an obvious choice to become a socialist for many people. Mamdani is going to become very popular in NY before the 2nd order effects of his policies kick in.
Hong vs Tiffany is going to be an excellent barometer of how bad Wisconsites are feeling the effects of inflation.
The inevitability may be true, but the reasons are somewhat different.
There is no problem with workers. Workers are ready learn and do whatever work is available. If we “can’t fill the job,” there are a variety of ways to handle that challenge. And there’s no shortage of things that need to get done, just look around.
Capitalism is the capitalist’s to lose. It’s here, capitalists have essentially total control of our world. What makes capitalism successful contains the seed of its downfall. You blame politicians, but who do they work for? The rich investors, not the workers. They need the line to keep going up – for $1 to reliably turn into $2 without the investor lifting a finger. Infinite economic growth. Cancer. The rich have the politicians run deficits to placate workers with social supports without cutting into their wealth to pay for it – it’ll be someone else holding the bag.
The collapse is inevitable, so I’d prefer an orderly transition now to socialism rather than a messy sudden collapse. Or, the capitalist-class needs to act fast and show us they can handle the challenges facing us, because they’re not doing well as it is.
Yep, the Democratic Party is the party of socialism.
The question is… are they national socialists or international socialists?