Somewhere in a Republican advertising agency, a young man is enjoying a cigar, ordering pizza and assembling the following TV ad.
It begins with a Democratic congressman from a competitive district looking reasonable in a manly lumberjack shirt. “The Democratic party is a Big Tent,” he says.
The screen goes dark.
The announcer says, “A Big Tent? Big enough for what?”
Up pop the proposals contained in the Democratic Socialists of America’s national program: abolish the police and prison system; erase the Senate and Electoral College; replace the president and Supreme Court with contraptions controlled by politicians; end all deportations; give voting rights to non-citizens; place our largest companies under government ownership; completely defund the military; end all aid to Israel.
Establishment Democrats have finally discovered they are sharing their tent with hungry young Leninist cannibals
The congressman reappears, the shot tighter, and he repeats. “The Democratic party is a Big Tent.”
Pause, and the announcer closes: “Well, that’s this guy’s Big Tent. Is it yours?”
That ad has not yet aired. It will.
Democrats have spent the summer congratulating themselves on their ideological hospitality. After DSA candidates routed establishment candidates in several primaries, party leaders reached for the same palliating phrase. Senator Chris Murphy advocated a “Big Tent.” Congressman Seth Moulton said: “We’ve got to have a Big Tent if we want a majority.” Colorado’s Democratic party chairman welcomed everyone, including democratic socialists.
The Big Tent is the party’s latest dance craze. They thought they’d found a clever dodge: a Democrat in a swing district could say he did not personally favor abolishing prisons or nationalizing large industries. His party simply contained many different opinions.
But voters see something more frightening: the Big Tent is the Democratic party’s public invitation to socialism. It lays out a welcome mat for communism to enter the Democratic party’s home.
Establishment Democrats know that such views have moved aggressively into their coalition, but they refuse to say they are disqualifying. The Big Tent is just the pleasant name they give their cowardice. Radical socialists are no longer harmless children shouting outside the tent. The kids have been welcomed inside to exercise power, set the agenda and raise money.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani backed three congressional candidates in June’s Democratic primaries, all of whom won. They defeated two sitting members of Congress – Dan Goldman and five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat – and vanquished a third member’s establishment-backed successor. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries supported the old establishment candidates. He lost all three contests.
Democrats such as Chuck Schumer have finally discovered they are sharing their tent with hungry young Leninist cannibals. Too late, they are beginning to wonder why the newcomers brought knives and forks.
Mamdani subsequently appeared on ABC’s This Week, where Jonathan Karl asked whether both socialists and capitalists belonged in the Democratic party. Mamdani praised its Big Tent. Karl reminded him that he had also called for a party with a spine, referring to democratic socialism.
“Even a tent has to stay up,” Mamdani joked.
Karl asked Mamdani about congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier’s support for abolishing prisons and her opposition to deportations, even of violent criminals. Mamdani declined to repudiate her positions. Democrats, he explained, could have policy disagreements.
“So, we can disagree on something as basic as whether or not there should be prisons?” Karl asked.
Under the Democratic canvass, there is room.
This does not mean that every democratic socialist endorses every plank in the DSA program, much less that ordinary Democrats do. Abdul El-Sayed, the lethally progressive Senate candidate in Michigan, is not publicly a DSA member.
The typical Democrat defense, in fact, will be that Congressman X does not believe any of these things. And he may not. But Congressman X has admitted that people who do believe these things belong in his Big Tent party. That is scary enough.
The truthful charge Republicans must make is difficult for Democrats to duck. It is this: that Democrats increasingly refuse to name any radical socialist belief that would place a candidate beyond their party’s boundaries.
Years ago, Democrats began absorbing aggrieved identity groups in exchange for their votes. Today, the Big Tent is the amiable expression they use to cloak their refusal to reject any bizarre voting bloc, even communism.
Ordinarily, November would be a straightforward brake-pedal election. Midterm voters usually restrain the party in the White House, and Democrats are fired up to check Donald Trump. This does not augur well for Republicans when the election is barreling toward them in three months.
But socialist victories within the Democratic party may allow Republicans to tap a different brake pedal. The Big Tent was supposed to hide the socialist eruption. Instead, it gave socialism an address and a place to park the Subaru.
Somewhere in a Democratic ad agency, a young progressive is nursing an oat-milk matcha and ordering a locally sourced vegan lunch from an underpaid gig worker. She sees the Democrats’ mistake and is trying to assemble a response.
She could say the Democrats’ Big Tent is large. The entrance is certainly wide. Diversity is through the roof. Still, she’s wondering how many Americans will want to enter once they see virulent socialism’s new home.
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