I was a victim too, at least my wife was.
She had friends who were Socialists.
Socialism has long been a forbidden word in American politics.
Seen as synonymous with communism and the polar opposite of the capitalist
American dream that celebrates the ambitions of the individual, it is
frequently used by those on the right as symptomatic of a failed state.
The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented,
but that socialism has been faithfully implemented.
There has never been a successful Socialist government, not ever.
It's like how if you add the word sandwich to turd, it is still a turd sandwich. If you add the word democratic
to socialism, it is still socialism.
Or socialism is seen as a quaint idea adopted by smaller European nations.
It's on European socialism, I mean really what's the point. I'm not European.
I don't plan on being European so who gives a crap if they're Socialists.
But socialism is on the rise across the United States. After Bernie Sanders made huge waves in the 2016
Democratic presidential primaries, a raft of Democratic Socialists are finding success across the country.
I won!
We are not just trying to change who is in government, but we are trying to change how government works.
So people all over this country are looking at the status quo and they
understand that it is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics.
As Republicans and Democrats increasingly distance themselves to the fringes,
does this mean that one day we could have a Socialist leader in the White House?
There's more young people today than there have been in the past who are attracted to socialism.
I mean, Bernie Sanders testifies to that.
First it's important to define what we mean when we talk about socialism.
This economic and political theory has evolved over the years and it's practice differs depending on who you ask.
There have been 3 types of socialism seen throughout history.
First, the demand for workers control, seen in the Russian Revolution
and uprisings throughout Europe.
Then there's actually existing socialism with a dictatorship of the proletariat,
like what we saw in the Soviet Union.
And then there's a newer kind of socialism that has become more popular with the presidential run
of Bernie Sanders. The first labor parties in Europe emerged
from this idea of socialism which prioritizes the interests of workers in the economy.
The rhetoric is social control for the common good as opposed to
relying on private interest for private good.
But without checks and balances you have individual people who still have
private interests and we see that when you come to North Korea, the Soviet Union,
Cuba, and it's a disaster.
So what makes democratic socialism different from the broader theory which has so often been connected to
communism? We turned to the New York City Democratic Socialists of America to break it down.
Oftentimes, whenever people point to examples of socialism, they are not,
I think they're missing the democratic piece. So there's often times where
people say 'well, we're gonna be like Cuba or Russia or Venezuela' and I think that
those are particular instances where there was also like a dictator involved
and so therefore was not democratic. Although some of those programs
were very ambitious and wanted to help people, they were still coming from the top down.
And so what democratic socialism means for us here in the
United States is that we would just have democratic control over our workplaces and our government.
Something like a worker cooperative would be the model that we would seek.
We are the Socialists! The Democratic Socialists!
After Bernie lost the primary, we were trying to figure out what what we were going to do with this momentum
of all these people that all of a sudden were like really excited about, you know, the idea of
free college tuition and, you know, Medicare for all and we didn't want
to lose that momentum. So we came together and started our own chapter of
Democratic Socialists of America here in New York. We were one of the very first
ones and then from there it kind of spread like wildfire.
And I think that this year we're really rediscovering our power which is so exciting, but we need to maintain it.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did inspire a lot of people to say 'I want to join DSA'
which was amazing. I think that as we see more victories like hers
hopefully, that people will be inspired to actually feel like there is something that we can do.
I think she inspired this national conversation about democratic socialism which is amazing.
Honestly, here in New York City, we saw a greater bump
from what we would call the 'Trump bump.' We saw a greater increase in our membership
after, directly after Trump was elected than we ever saw during the Bernie phase.
We had a lot of people come into meetings and say like 'I don't even know if I'm a Democratic Socialist,
but I'm here because it seems like you are the only ones doing something about this.'
Although the Democratic Socialist movement seems like a foreign concept before Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez,
this is actually not the first time that socialist ideas have taken hold in America.
Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs won nearly a
million votes in both in the 1912 and 1920 elections amid a socialist wave in the United States.
Prior to the New Deal, there was this surge of interest in
socialism because there were abuses of capitalism, there weren't the sort
of moral restraints through legislation on the free economy that there should have been.
And then there was the Great Depression, but Roosevelt took us
a little further in the direction of socialism, enough to siphon off anger and
discontentment and the socialist movement died away. Then our capitalist economy had a resurgence.
So it didn't seem at all necessary, it wasn't as attractive. The older people, of course, remember the Cold War,
they remember the Soviet Union. It was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
People's memories, historical memories are short.
When we spoke to voters on the street, we found that some are still skeptical of
socialism in practice, because of past examples of Socialist states.
I'm Venezuelan. I was born there, raised. At the time, it was Hugo Chavez who was the
president. He basically like sold this idea that socialism was gonna cure the
country or whatnot and he was going to, that progress was going to be made. He kind of
took a little turn into like the communist, a little bit dictatorship turn.
So, like that's my experience with socialism.
I think the idea of socialism is really great, I just don't feel that it's actually pragmatic or practical.
If a Socialist person was running on a Socialist party, I would not vote for him.
Socialism, which is looking to the government to solve a lot of the problems, is problematic.
Democratic leaders used to distance themselves from the word socialism.
People call me a Socialist sometimes but no, you got to meet real Socialists,
you'll have a sense of what a Socialist is.
If you think we could make a more stark contrast to right-wing economics?
Well, I thank you for your question, but I have to say we're capitalists, and that's just the way it is.
The real question is why are politicians willing to associate themselves with the word now?
You call yourself a Democratic Socialist, how can any kind of Socialist
win a general election in the United States?
Well, we're going to win, because first, we're going to explain what democratic socialism is.
Are you a Democratic Socialist, is that what you call yourself or you don't want that label?
I mean, it's part of what I am. It's not all of what I am.
What would a Socialist administration actually look like if America elected a candidate who embraced the label?
A Socialist president would advocate greater regulation of the economy,
that's something the executive branch has a lot of control over,
with a view to also legislation that controlled business, took ownership
of various sectors of the economy, like a single-payer system would in healthcare.
I think that if we had an administration like
Senator Sanders or someone else that represented democratic socialism,
it would lean more towards like a Nordic version of social democracy, in the
sense that, you know, maybe some things would be nationalized, like education and healthcare.
I can't articulate a particular vision for Democratic Socialists of
America, because we call ourselves a big tent. We're a group of activists who fall
in a spectrum for everything from Anarchists to Social Democrats or Liberals.
Young voters are rejecting capitalism in growing numbers.
In August 2018, a Gallup poll found that only 45% of Americans aged 18 to 29 have a
positive view of capitalism. This is down from 68% in 2010.
Bernie Sanders called for a political revolution and I think it inspired many people, especially
young people, to have more civic engagement in this country. It kind of
took the dirty out of the word socialism.
I think I'm definitely more open to it now especially with the social climate as it is right now.
Socialism seems pretty attractive
I would potentially vote for like a Democratic Socialist like Bernie Sanders.
I definitely could vote for someone that identified as a Democratic Socialist.
I think that socialism has a negative connotation in today's vocabulary only because
they think of the failed systems of socialism, but when you actually look at the principles of socialism, we've
adopted a lot of them into our social welfare.
I don't really have any hesitance, maybe that's because I'm young, but I've been like rallying for Bernie
since I was 14 years old. He was my favorite senator and my favorite candidate.
I think what happens is that people are scared of the word and don't really
understand the history of the word or how it would actually be actualized in real policy.
So I'm very open to it. I think that it'll happen probably sooner than later.
Although Hillary Clinton ultimately triumphed in the 2016 primaries, Bernie
Sanders won the youth vote by a wide margin. In fact, more young people under
age 30, voted for Sanders than Clinton and Donald Trump combined.
And it's not just youth who are more open to the idea of socialism. With Socialist success in
local government and frustration with federal policies, openness to anti-establishment politicians is growing.
I could vote for a Socialist candidate.
I would vote certainly for someone who represent
democratic socialism ideas.
Right now, the rich are getting richer and it's not working.
I come from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we had a Social mayor there.
Oh, I would vote for a Socialist president based on the history of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Even the 1992 movie Wayne's World nodded to the historical success of local socialism.
I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that
it's the only major American city to have ever elected 3 Socialist mayors.
Does this guy know how to party or what?
If interest in socialism has peaked and dropped in the past, will Bernie Sanders' influence die down like
Eugene Debs Socialist movement?
Recently with the financial crisis of 2008, that has turned around somewhat.
But the economy is flying again, people are getting jobs, so I think we'll see interest in socialism subsiding.
Or with the growing political divide between the left and right, is it
possible that America could elect a Socialist candidate to the White House in the next 50 years?
If you study history, you'll see that since the rise
of the nation-state, that socialism has been an historical inevitability, dude.
Our mission is, honestly like before we even put people in office at a
presidential level, is to get our neighbors and friends to understand
democracy and power and want to engage in that way.
If Bernie Sanders can rival Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and if he can be the player
that he is now in one of the two main parties, then I think anything is possible.
Socialism is coming to this country, it's coming fast.
I definitely think socialism is in our future.