Is AOC’s and the DSA’s ideology really democratic socialism or closer to communism?

[SolitarySolace]

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/

Communism

Democratic Socialism

[exitseven]

It's communism disguised as something that sounds too good to be true. When asked how it will all be paid for the only thing thay have is tax the rich.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[Cidknee]

Commie scum!

[Jersey2]

It won’t work

DSA is a suckers vote bait. They will take your vote and give you economic chaos. NYC voted in Mamdani and they expected free buses and in the end he immediately raised the price of bus rides.

The teachers Union supported him and he took much of their remaining pension fund. He got the governor to take on a lot of costs from the city. He is taxing everything including rich people who maintain a small place in the city for quick stays.

Now people are fleeing NYC and taking 11 billion in tax money. Same with California which is losing the middle class, the rich and companies along with the jobs they supplied. It is a shit show.

[Just_Ken]

You ever watch the Canadian social democrat party meetings. This is how i imagine them running the country would look like

https://youtu.be/g2oXRDv1cxM?is=OzM5D620LdI3zQue

[SolitarySolace]

@Just_Ken That comparison really doesn’t address what I’m talking about. Canada’s NDP is a social-democratic political party operating within Canada’s existing constitutional system.

The American DSA is publishing a very different long-term political project. Its current program explicitly says it wants to transform society, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.

So showing me a Canadian social-democratic party meeting doesn’t tell me what America would look like under the DSA’s program. I’m concerned with what the DSA itself says it wants to do to the United States—not with importing an analogy from a different country, party, and constitutional system.

Judge the DSA by the DSA’s own platform. That is radical enough without pretending every left-of-center party in every country is interchangeable.

[Just_Ken]

Watch the video because that is where the Democrat party is heading. Point of privilege and social equity cards to decide your place in soceity

[SolitarySolace]

@Just_Ken I understand the point you’re making about privilege politics and social-equity ideology, and I may object to plenty of that too. But honestly, that is NOT what concerns me most about where the socialist wing of the Democratic coalition could take this country.

I am far more concerned about the Democratic Socialists of America openly saying that the existing political system itself needs to be replaced. Their current program says they are fighting to “transform society,” draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic. It calls for abolishing the Electoral College and Senate, replacing the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress, replacing the two-party system, and establishing public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries.

And the DSA explicitly says some of its demands can be won under the current system while “complete victory” requires building a new society from the ground up. In other words, they themselves distinguish between reforms they can achieve now and the much larger political transformation they ultimately want.

THAT is what I am worried about. Not merely obnoxious identity politics at party meetings. I am worried about a movement accumulating political power while openly advocating replacement of major institutions of the constitutional republic itself.

So if that broader program doesn’t concern you, then I honestly think you are drastically underestimating the stakes. I am not going to wave the DSA away because some other aspect of the Democratic Party is easier to mock. The DSA is publishing its intended destination in plain English, and I think Americans should take them at their word before giving their movement enough political power to start pursuing it.

[Just_Ken]

It should concern you because they want to enact this in real life.

[SolitarySolace]

@Just_Ken I understand that you think what is happening in Canada should concern me. Honestly, it is not what I am talking about and it is nowhere near my primary concern.

Canada adopting obnoxious social-equity or identity-politics policies is not the same thing as the DSA openly proposing to transform the United States into a democratic socialist republic under a new constitution.

Are Canadians currently organizing to abolish their existing country’s constitutional system and replace it with a “Democratic Socialist Republic of Canada”? No? Then it is not remotely the same argument.

I can oppose stupid policies in Canada without pretending they are equivalent to an organized American movement saying that the political system itself must ultimately be transformed.

That is what I give a shit about here: what the DSA says it wants to do to MY country. I am not going to keep getting sidetracked into Canada, random left-wing identity politics, or every other progressive policy somebody dislikes when I am specifically discussing the DSA’s constitutional agenda.

[strateguy632]

2nd and worse than bad communism

[BadApple69]

It’s not close to communism IT IS COMMUNISM.

[canamlusciouslad73]

The former. They loathe Communism!!!

[fishbone77]

it's all communism dressed up with friendly names