Oct 5, 2026 · 50 min
Socialists test their power inside the Democratic Party
What Do America’s Socialists Want?
The episode examines whether DSA can turn growing membership and electoral visibility into durable influence without losing its independence or broadening its appeal.
- 1DSA combines electoral ambition with internal debate over whether candidates or deeper organizing should drive socialist power.
- 2Its growth has been fueled by crises from Occupy and Bernie Sanders to Gaza, but its membership remains demographically narrow.
- 3Socialist policy demands may influence Democrats indirectly, especially as affordability becomes a central electoral argument.
Don't miss
The discussion’s sharpest turn considers whether Democrats will absorb Mamdani’s affordability agenda, repeating an older pattern of mainstream liberalism absorbing socialist demands.
The brief
Charles Homans defines democratic socialism through DSA’s blurred boundaries with progressivism and the left, then turns to the organization’s competing theories of political change.
DSA’s electoral wing, associated with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, faces members who argue that winning offices is insufficient without deeper organizing.
The movement’s modern growth follows political shocks from Occupy and Sanders through Gaza and Zohran Mamdani, while its roughly 120,000 members remain predominantly white, college educated, and urban.
The conversation tests comparisons with the Tea Party and cautions that DSA’s visibility can overstate its actual reach, especially beyond heavily Democratic districts.
The standout tension arrives in the question of absorption: Democrats may adopt socialist affordability demands even as mainstream liberalism historically blunts socialism’s independent power.
The episode closes on a movement balancing ambitious goals, internal divisions, politician accountability, and the possibility that indirect influence may matter more than formal control.
What was said on this episode
24 statements · 8 positive · 6 negative · 1 mixed · 9 neutral
Bernie Sanders popularized democratic socialism in contemporary American politics without belonging to DSA.
“Bernie Sanders sort of famously is not a member of the group and is responsible more than anyone else for sort of popularizing this movement right now in American politics”
Listen at 2:49
Socialist identification signals stronger commitment to progressive promises than generic progressive branding.
“identifying yourself as a socialist was a way of sort of drawing a bright line, like I'm really going to do all this stuff if I'm elected and have the ability to do it.”
Listen at 6:12
DSA lacks a clear electoral path to achieving its official vision.
“there's not a clear path to electorally realizing the vision that the DSA officially wants to realize.”
Listen at 8:00
Socialists in executive office can demonstrate how socialist governance might work.
“if you are a self-identified socialist in an executive office, you are able to sort of model what this would conceivably look like in governance”
Listen at 10:03
DSA members broadly agree on the platform’s basic principles and ambitions.
“there isn't anything other than quite broad agreement about the basic principles and ambitions that they lay out in the national DSA platform”
Listen at 11:33
DSA’s ambitious goals should be taken seriously even if they may be unattainable.
“I think you have to take those ambitions seriously, whether or not they're actually achievable”
Listen at 12:42
DSA’s electoral success has not yet matched the Tea Party’s 2010 achievement.
“It is not a success on the level of the Tea Party yet.”
Listen at 14:55
Israel-Palestine and data centers were key issues in DSA’s strongest recent races.
“These have been sort of key issues in the races where DSA has either won or done surprisingly well.”
Listen at 15:35
DSA membership growth tends to spike during political crises.
“they tend to be these moments of crisis where people on the left are trying to figure out, what the hell do we do here?”
Listen at 20:22
Academic-style social justice politics is not intrinsic to DSA.
“I don't think it's particularly intrinsic to DSA.”
Listen at 27:12
New York DSA is pragmatic, large, and electorally successful relative to other chapters.
“New York is on the sort of quote unquote conservative end of the DSA. Like they're pretty, they are a very pragmatic organization and they are like far and away the largest and most successful DSA chapter.”
Listen at 31:08
Experienced DSA chapters moderate public messaging because extreme rhetoric can hinder electoral victories.
“they tend to, I think, roll their eyes at it and often be, you know, like they are sort of experienced at this point with winning elections and understand that You can't kind of let your freak flag fly all the time if you want to be actually winning races.”
Listen at 31:37
DSA is criticized for pairing popular campaign messages with less publicly emphasized platform positions.
“A fair criticism that's often made of DSA is that they do this kind of Mott and Bailey thing”
Listen at 32:54
Formal DSA membership overlaps only modestly with Americans broadly sympathetic to DSA politics.
“there is probably like fairly limited overlap”
Listen at 34:08
Only about 10% of DSA members belong to ideological caucuses.
“The caucuses only probably account for a fairly small amount of the DSA's overall membership. I think it's like 10% or something like that of DSA members are even in these kind of ideological factions.”
Listen at 35:21
DSA membership is predominantly white, college educated, and urban.
“it is an overwhelmingly white organization, overwhelmingly college educated and overwhelmingly urban.”
Listen at 36:38
DSA-aligned candidates recently won outside traditional urban progressive strongholds.
“you have seen people, you know, winning outside of that geography this year, which is interesting.”
Listen at 37:11
The 1912 election marked the peak of early American socialist politics.
“the high watermark of socialist politics was the 1912 election.”
Listen at 43:01
American socialist parties were largely politically irrelevant for most of the twentieth century.
“they spent most of the 20th century in the state of real... irrelevance”
Listen at 44:25
Liberal progressive Democrats adopted socialist policies, reducing socialism’s electoral appeal.
“The stuff that people liked about socialism had been appropriated and implemented to great effect by liberal progressive Democrats.”
Listen at 46:30
Bernie Sanders shifted Democratic economic policy substantially leftward despite losing the primary.
“Bernie won an enormous amount for the left. I mean, he pushed economic policy in the Democratic Party much further to the left than it would have been otherwise.”
Listen at 48:06
The left influenced economic policy during the Biden administration.
“you certainly saw that in the Biden administration and the influence that the left wielded on economic policy inside of his administration”
Listen at 48:19
Democratic politicians are currently absorbing the left’s affordability emphasis.
“there is an aspect of that unfolding now with affordability, certainly.”
Listen at 48:30
DSA may align more closely with Democratic voters on technology regulation and foreign policy.
“there are these issues. What I think are the more interesting questions are these issues of tech regulation, of foreign policy, where DSA may be closer to Democratic voters in some respects”
Listen at 49:11
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.