Are Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson Democratic Socialists or FDR Democrats? They Are Both

This is fitting: For more than a century, socialism has been integral to American progressivism, championing early many of the reforms that would eventually come into vogue on the center left.

By Peter Dreier, Talking Points Memo

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. 

Between now and next year’s midterm elections, the “S” word, and even the “C” word, are going to get a workout. President Trump and his allies have called New York’s socialist mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a Communist, a Marxist, a terrorist, and even a jihadist. They’re warning that the U.S. is experiencing a wave of “socialism,” a term that they hope still carries its hoary Cold War connotations. They hope to make Mamdani the face of the Democratic Party, a tactic intended to discredit its candidates in swing races.

During the Red Scare hysteria of the 1950s, American socialism fell on hard times. Few Americans distinguished between the European social-welfare systems and the communism of the Soviet Union or China. Across the nation, universities, labor unions, public schools, movie studios and other major institutions purged themselves of their left-wingers. Even many liberals were afraid to speak out for fear of being called a Communist and losing their jobs.

Through the Obama administration, the use of the term “socialism” as a kind of political epithet was on full display, with the president’s opponents — the Republican Party, the Tea Party, the right-wing blogosphere, the Chamber of Commerce, and conservative media figures such as Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh — labeling anything he proposed, including his modest health-care reform law, “socialism.”

Over the last decade, however, something has started to shift. Republicans have not stopped red-baiting, and they will continue to shout “socialism” as they attempt to defeat Democrats next year and in 2028. But the political climate has dramatically changed. Americans, particularly those under 50, are more open to candidates who call themselves socialists, so long as they have practical ideas for solving their problems. They are reassessing their understanding of socialism, and its place within American identity.

This is fitting: For more than a century, socialism has been integral to American progressivism, championing early many of the reforms that would eventually come into vogue on the center left.

We are seeing that dynamic play out again today.

From the margins to the mainstream

Mamdani is a member of Democratic Socialists of America, but most of the one million New Yorkers who voted for him would likely not describe themselves as “socialists.” The same is true of those who voted for Katie Wilson, the socialist community organizer who will become Seattle’s new mayor, or for the other dozen socialists who were elected to office for the first time in November. There are few self-identified socialists among the voters who supported the more than 250 people now serving in office who are DSA members, were endorsed by local DSA chapters, or, like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, call themselves democratic socialists but have never joined the organization.

There are now at least 135 DSAers and DSA-affiliated city council members, 64 state legislators, 21 school board members, 6 mayors, and three members of Congress. In November, voters in Atlanta; Detroit; Tucson; Greenbelt, Maryland; Troy and Poughkeepsie, New York; Hamden, New London and New Britain, Connecticut; and Amherst, Massachusetts elected democratic socialists on their city councils. Minneapolis added one new democratic socialist to its city council, bringing the total to five. Ithaca, New York, added two, bringing the total to three. Five DSAers serve on the Chicago city council and four serve on its counterpart in Portland, Oregon. In Los Angeles, four of the 15 city council members are affiliated with DSA, and two others are currently running for council seats that will be decided next year. Voters have elected eight DSAers to the New York state legislature and three to Pennsylvania’s. Last year, voters in Eau Claire, Wisconsin elected socialist Christian Phelps, a freelance journalist and organizer for Wisconsin Public Education Network, to the state assembly, replacing a Republican.