Mamdani, DSA aim to transform America by pushing barbarism
The Democratic Socialists of America are having a moment.In fact, they’re having a season.DSA candidates are winning nationwide in Democratic Party primaries, knocking off incumbents while running on some of the most deranged platforms in recent political memory.Zohran Mamdani, the charismatic young socialist in Gracie Mansion, is the new leader of the DSA pack.It couldn’t be clearer what the DSA wants: to finish the job, launched by Barack Obama on the precipice of presidential victory in 2008, of “fundamentally transforming” the United States.
The DSA’s new policy platform, released this month, says the quiet part out loud: “We are workers fighting to transform society,” to “draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.”It would be one thing if these were the words of a starry-eyed freshman pothead, first exposed to Marx and pontificating to dormmates while John Lennon’s dreadful song “Imagine” plays in the background.But people like Hizzoner and the new uptown socialist “it girl,” Darializa Avila Chevalier, are adults.They are serious.And that makes them not just naive but dangerous.Zo has had a complicated relationship with the issue of public safety.The official DSA platform stops short of calling for full “abolition” of prisons or policing, instead calling to “demilitarize police departments” and “end mass incarceration.”But Avila Chevalier promoted full-on police and prison abolition from a since-deleted Twitter/X account, and Mamdani condemned the “carceral state” when he ran for the Assembly in 2020.After Avila Chevalier’s primary victory, Mamdani was pressed during an appearance on ABC News on whether he supports the existence of prisons.“There are prisons,” he simply responded.That’s not exactly reassuring.Just this week, Zo appeared on purported comic Jon Stewart’s podcast and doubled down on his prevarication.
Stewart asked Hizzoner if he is “comfortable” with calls to...