Questions

The much more important question is: what does the democratic-socialist movement actually say it wants?

The DSA’s current program goes far beyond healthcare, higher taxes, or stronger social programs. It calls for a new political system and a democratic socialist republic, abolishing the Electoral College and Senate, replacing the two-party system, fundamentally restructuring the executive and judiciary, and pursuing sweeping economic transformation.

Those are not Republican inventions or scare tactics. They are positions the DSA itself publishes.

And AOC’s relationship with that movement is not imaginary. DSA has repeatedly identified her as an important democratic-socialist figure with longstanding ties to the organization, even though its national organization withdrew its conditional endorsement in 2024 while NYC-DSA continued supporting her.

So my own answer to this poll is Democratic Socialism, not Communism. But that is absolutely not an endorsement. I do not need to call AOC or the DSA communist to oppose the political direction they represent.

The DSA’s version of democratic socialism is radical enough on its own stated terms.

Rather than laughing off the concern because someone used the wrong ideological label, I think supporters should answer the substantive question: Which parts of the DSA’s proposed political transformation do you support, and which do you reject?

Ocasio-Cortez: GOP’s communist warnings ‘very silly’ - https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5986707-ocasio-cortez-communist-attack/amp/