Democratic Socialists of America

Friday

Cockburn

Nancy Mace busted by the Capitol Hill fashion police

With her vote to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Nancy Mace has made herself the pariah of the House. And after donning a red, Scarlet Letter-style “A” on her chest to reflect this as she headed into House GOP meetings this week, she caught the ire of the Capitol Hill Fashion Police too. One of her colleagues intimated the “A” must stand for “attention” — and lamented that “there wasn’t enough bling” on it and that “a light-up version would’ve been better.” In a Congress filled with all but literal skeletons, Mace stands out for her relative youth. One staffer had no problem with her choice of outfits this week.

nancy mace

Friday

Melissa Chen

Don’t compare the nationwide riots to Hong Kong

As soon as the unrest began in Minneapolis, the inevitable comparisons with Hong Kong began. We saw throngs of masked demonstrators take to the streets holding placards and chanting slogans while police in riot gear discharged rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas. We saw skirmishes in which protesters were pinned to the ground with excessive force. We saw smoldering barricades and burning police vehicles. But that’s where the superficial similarities between the two protest movements end. Hong Kong’s protests began as a revolt against the controversial extradition bill (which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China). It built upon past pro-democracy movements and morphed into an existential battle against the Chinese Communist party.

hong kong

Monday

Will Lloyd

Is Bernie Sanders the Barry Goldwater of the left?

Forgive the analogy that follows. Is Bernie Sanders the Barry Goldwater of the left? Has Sanders, to echo the words of George Will on Goldwater, lost two primary campaigns but won the future? What reminds us of Goldwater is the clarity of Sanders’s proposals and the force with which he expressed them. Medicare-for-All, canceling student debt, free college tuition; paid for by soaking the wealthy with new taxes. Sanders made all of this thinkable, because most of his ideas are popular. The Sanders moment arrived at a time of political reorientation that would have been unthinkable during the Cold War years. Polling showed that half of millennials have unfavorable views of capitalism. Seventy percent say they are likely to vote for a socialist candidate.

bernie sanders barry goldwater

Tuesday

Will Lloyd

Rise of the comrade babies

If you elected to build a library dedicated to the subject of Human Folly, the place would end up as wide as the Grand Canyon and as tall as the Burj Khalifa. Plenty of space then, for a modest pamphlet on the activities of the Democratic Socialists of America, who held their National Convention last week in Atlanta. Socialism – or something that calls itself socialism – has returned to America. There are some good reasons for this turn to the left, among them a justifiable anger with a feckless ruling class that is shared by the Trumpian right. Thomas Frank continues to argue persuasively (and ineffectually) that a populist turn to the left – not open borders advocacy and more managerialism – are the best way to beat President Trump.

dsa