The DSA Red Scare

Summary

It Could Happen Here – "The DSA Red Scare" (July 16, 2026)

Host: Garrison Davis (Cool Zone Media)

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Overview

This episode explores the recent, historic surge of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) electoral victories across the United States, examining their growing influence within the Democratic Party, the backlash from conservative and moderate political circles, and the implications for national politics. The episode traces how DSA's successes in New York, Washington D.C., Colorado, and elsewhere have intensified a "Red Scare" discourse reminiscent of Cold War-era anti-communism, now re-emerging among both Republicans and centrist Democrats. It also analyzes DSA’s new platform, media responses, and the shifting Overton window of American politics, all while emphasizing the deepening battle over the soul and future direction of the Democratic Party.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. DSA's Unprecedented Electoral Wins and Rapid Growth

• New York Surge: DSA slate achieves sweeping victories, including Zoran Mamdani defeating Andrew Cuomo for mayor and nine of ten insurgent NYC DSA candidates winning primary races for Congress and state legislature.
  • [01:34] “Nine out of the ten insurgent candidates on the NYC DSA slate won their races last month, beating sitting incumbents and establishment backed candidates.” – Garrison Davis
• National Footprint Expanding: Beyond NYC, DSA wins major primaries in Washington D.C. (mayoral/council), Colorado, and Pennsylvania, with a membership spike from 50,000 post-2024 to over 120,000.
  • [06:03] “Nationally this month, DSA reached over 120,000 members, a record high.” – Garrison Davis
• Organizational Infrastructure: NYC’s DSA chapter exemplified as a model—bloc campaigning, post-election candidate coordination, massive volunteer base.
  • [07:22] “NYC DSA elected officials meet weekly to align votes and coordinate strategy. The machine doesn’t stop.” – Quoting Canary Mission article via Garrison Davis
  • [07:48] “This is how a movement stops looking like protest and starts looking like infrastructure.” – Quoting Canary Mission

2. Establishment Backlash – The New 'Red Scare'

• Right-wing Response: President Trump, Fox News, and top Republicans cast DSA victories as a "communist revolution," warning of existential threats to American liberty.
  • [04:53] “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11.” – Trump Speech, clipped
  • [08:26] “This is not your granddaddy’s Democrat Party…a full blown communist revolution that is taking over Capitol Hill.” – Caroline Levitt (White House Press Secretary, Fox News)
  • [15:01] “Defund the Department of War. Replace the President and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen and subordinate to Congress… abolish the Senate.” – Mike Johnson (House Speaker, summarizing and mocking DSA platform)
• Centrist Democrats Alarmed: Calls for a "war" on new DSA-aligned members, threats of schism, accusations of "bomb throwers, not problem solvers."
  • [09:18] “There’s going to be a war if the new members of Congress try to utilize their block…” – Quoting Axios
  • [27:14] “I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk the S-word: schism. There’s some I can’t be in the same tent with.” – James Carville (Democratic Strategist, Fox News)

3. Public Debate over DSA's Platform and Policy Proposals

• Key DSA Platform Points:

  • Electoral & institutional reforms: Proportional representation, abolishing the Senate, public financing of elections, expanding the House, multiparty democracy.
  • Labor & social welfare: Paid family leave, living wage, 32-hour work week, canceling student debt, universal health care, public housing, jobs guarantee.
  • Carceral & foreign policy: Abolish ICE, amnesty for all, defund military/police infrastructure, end aid to Israel, prosecute Gaza war crimes, honor Indigenous treaties.
  • [16:45] “Paid family leave for all workers, a 32-hour work week, a living minimum wage, canceling student debt, universal health care, building publicly owned social housing, honoring all treaties and tribal sovereignty… ending US war machine, a free Palestine…” – Garrison Davis, quoting DSA platform

• Media & Political Reactions:

  • Fox News, Axios, and Third Way paint DSA as "radicals," "zealots," "anarchists," and "not real Democrats."
  • Liberals repeatedly downplay the DSA as a “New York phenomenon” or dismiss their governing potential.
    • [19:55] “You know those were races in individual districts in a whole other state…” – Josh Shapiro (PA Governor)
    • [22:48] “What is important [is] the people who are making a lot of noise…have to now figure out how to deliver results.” – Josh Shapiro

4. How Socialists Are Successfully Reframing U.S. Politics

• From Protest to Governance: The episode emphasizes DSA’s ability to win power and effectively govern, challenging both Republican and moderate critiques.

  • [23:59] “We don’t have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last November…We’ve delivered free childcare for two-year-olds…the lowest recorded crime in our city’s history.” – Zoran Mamdani (NYC Mayor)
  • [25:05] “What we’ve seen over many years is a willingness to not only explain away the status quo, but frankly…to benefit from the status quo. That’s not what working people are looking for from our party.” – Mamdani

• Growing Youth Support / Party Realignment: Polls cited show rising support for socialism and even communism among Gen Z and Millennials, with the DSA increasingly popular among new, young voters.

  • [39:05] “According to this Cato poll, 53% of Gen Z respondents were favorable towards socialism, 45% to capitalism, and 38% to communism.” – Garrison Davis

• Class-based Politics Re-emerging: DSA’s approach rooted in uniting and organizing the working class, shifting debates from 'identity' to 'class struggle.'

5. Democratic Establishment Reacts to Party Takeover Fears

• Moderate & Establishment Pushback:

  • Threats to expel or marginalize DSA members, complaints that they’re “not real Democrats.”
  • Accusations of benefiting from "big tent" politics only to “hijack” the party from within.
    • [28:32] “If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination…If you don’t believe in the party, then don’t ask its members to carry you across the finish line…” – Jamie Harrison (former DNC Chair)
  • Attempts at red-baiting candidates and smearing their supporters.
  • Notable incidents of reactionary ethnic and racial dog-whistles in local races.

• DSA Response:

  • Stresses voters—not party elites—choose party nominees.
  • Points to new democratic socialist governance as proof of model’s capability.
    • [32:41] “What’s a party if not its voters? And I’m proud to sit in front of you as the mayor of our city, having received more than a million votes…” – Mamdani

6. Media Spectacle: Red Scare Outrage, Ms. Rachel, and Political Satire

• Fox News Red Scare Escalates: Repeated invocations of “communist menace” and outlandish warnings, including attacks on children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel as part of a supposed indoctrination plot.

  • [37:38] “She’s radically far left. Her show is really about indoctrinating children…I’m happy to have it. No problem. We will beat her like a drum.” – James Blair (Trump advisor on Fox News)

• Host Commentary and Satire: Garrison Davis repeatedly mocks establishment hand-wringing, drawing pointed parallels to 2024’s Democratic campaign failures, and highlighting the substantive contrast between DSA's material victories for working people and the centrist tendency to fearmonger or offer only opposition.

  • [37:16] “Believe it or not, this Fox News segment actually ended by talking about the threat posed by evil far left communist and children's educational YouTuber Ms. Rachel.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On DSA's Real Impact:

  • [23:59] “Over the course of these last six months, what we’ve delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible…while also delivering the lowest recorded crime in our city’s history.” – Zoran Mamdani

• On Growing Class Tensions:

  • [26:10] “As Red Scare style rhetoric has surged on the right, we’ve begun to see more establishment Dems team up with conservative media and Republican politicians in trying to take down the DSA to protect their shared class interests.” – Garrison Davis

• On Voter Power:

  • [32:41] “What’s a party if not its voters? …These Democratic Socialist candidates are winning primaries despite strong opposition from state Democratic parties, entrenched political machines…The DSA has to out-organize the Democratic establishment and overcome the power of corporate money just to get on the Democratic ballot line in November.” – Garrison Davis

• On DSA's Vision:

  • [17:49] “If we lived in a classless society and governed ourselves, we could freely build a world without war or poverty... Building this world is the guiding star of our movement... Our enemies are not just individual bosses, but the entire global system of capital." – DSA Program (read by host)

• On Party Realignment:

  • [44:02] “The DSA’s commitment is to ‘hollowing out the Democratic Party from within by primarying sitting Democrats and replacing them with ‘ideological zealots’…The DSA is building a left wing ideological movement waiting for its standard bearer.” – Quoting Third Way, via Garrison Davis

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:34] – Garrison Davis introduces DSA’s electoral victories.
• [04:53] – President Trump’s America250 anti-communist rhetoric.
• [06:03] – DSA registration numbers and national reach.
• [08:19] – Fox News segment: “The Commie Revolution.”
• [11:07] – Zoran Mamdani on national movement power (ABC interview).
• [15:01] – House Speaker Mike Johnson recites DSA platform and attacks it at Faith and Freedom Conference.
• [16:45] – Host details the new DSA platform, explains vision and manifesto.
• [19:55] – CNN/State of the Union: Josh Shapiro downplays DSA surge.
• [23:59] – Mamdani details socialist governance achievements in NYC.
• [27:14] – James Carville suggests a Democratic Party schism.
• [32:11] – Democratic Party establishment challenges the “Democratic-ness” of DSA candidates.
• [37:16] – Fox News attacks Ms. Rachel as a symbol of “far-left” indoctrination.
• [39:05] – Host breaks down polling on socialism and generational divide.
• [44:02] – Discussion of DSA as a Tea Party or transformational movement within the Democrats; Third Way critique.
• [46:15] – Final summary and look toward Wisconsin gubernatorial race as a test case for DSA expansion to swing states.

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Conclusion

The episode paints a vivid portrait of a political moment in flux: the DSA’s recent successes have disrupted the American political landscape, triggering a fierce backlash among both right-wing and centrist elites who fear a rising class-based movement. Through detailed analysis, direct quotations, and a survey of media hysteria (including comic interludes), Garrison Davis and "It Could Happen Here" argue that the real threat perceived by the establishment isn’t the supposed danger of “communism,” but the growing possibility of a party and politics that prioritizes the working class over elite interests—and that DSA is, for the first time in decades, turning that possibility into reality.

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End of Summary

Transcript

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[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

This is it. Could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. A specter is haunting the United States. Last year, Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani beat establishment politician Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral election two times, both in the Democratic primary and the November General. Since then, the Democratic Socialists of America have only grown their power in New York City, state and the halls of Congress. Claire Valdez, Brad Lander and Darieliza Avila Chevalier won their Congressional primary, unseating two Democrat incumbents and beating one incumbent backed progressive. That same night, seven New York City DSA candidates won their Democratic primaries for the State assembly and State Senate, paving the way to send seven new Democratic Socialists to the New York State Legislature, joining the eight Socialists already in office. In total, nine out of the ten insurgent candidates on the NYC DSA slate won their races last month, beating sitting incumbents and establishment backed candidates. When Hakeem Jeffries appeared on TV at a DSA election night party, the crowd chanted, you're next. The next morning in the Oval Office, President Trump commented on the DSA sweep.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

President Trump Great night for Democratic socialist candidates. Last night in the New York primaries, they swept and knocked out two incumbents. You're from New York. Why do you think it is that now the endorsement of Zoran Mamdani means more than the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries?

[Conservative Commentator]

Well, they're going radical left. They're going really. You know, you talk about the Democrat socialists you took really, it's really communist. That's these people. I watched that woman last night. That's not a socialist. I know socialists. That's a. That woman is a communist.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Just a week prior, a DSA endorsed candidate won the Democratic primary in the Washington D.C. mayoral election. And a DSA member won the primary for the Ward 1 City Council seat. Then a week after the New York City sweep, another Democratic socialist, Melot Quiros, won the Democratic primary in Colorado's first congressional House district, unseating a 30 year incumbent. This sequence of wins rattled both the Democratic establishment as well as Trump and the GOP. Here's Trump again in the Oval Office on June 29th.

[Zoran Mamdani]

Zoram Donny said in an interview this

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

week that he was open to being the poster child for socialist candidates. Are you worried about more socialist candidates

[Democratic Strategist / Fox News Guest]

across the United States?

[Conservative Commentator]

I think it's a big threat to our nation, actually, because it's not socialism, it's really communism. They use the word Social Democrat because it sounds so nice, but it's really communism you're talking about. I think it's the biggest threat to our nation there is, maybe since our founding.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

President Trump spent much of the July 4th weekend commemorating the 250th anniversary of the country attacking communism. These are clips from Trump's America250 address on July 4 and other speeches and press conferences from that same week.

[Conservative Commentator]

Communism is a loser and it always will be. The communist system is the opposite of the American system and the communist system has never worked. Our warriors did not fight communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We're not going to let it happen because it's like a cancer that spreads and you better stop it fast. We will never let the United States become a communist country. You can be loyal to Karl Marx or you can be loyal to America. Communism is a disaster. It's been proven to be for thousands of years under different names, but same thing. There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. Communism is A mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl harbor or even 9 11.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

As the DSA has won seats across the country, the organization has attracted new members. After the 2024 presidential election, DSA had about 50,000 members. Nationally this month, DSA reached over 120,000 members, a record high. Just the New York City chapter alone has over 15,000 members. Late last year, DSA allocated funding to open 20 new offices across the country. Around the June primary, the Zionist extremist group Canary Mission started specifically targeting NYC DSA with write ups on all 10 of the insurgent candidates. Canary Mission's anti NYC DSA article from before the election was titled A Thousand Zorons. Don't Threaten me with a Good Time. The article not only attacked the NYC DSA candidates, but also highlighted how the organizational structure of NYC DSA has established a template for success by running candidates as a whole bloc who can campaign together and then support each other once in office. Quote NYC DSA elected officials meet weekly to align votes and coordinate strategy. The machine doesn't stop in all caps. In a post on X the Everything app after the June primary, Canary Mission wrote, quote, New York City DSA is not just growing, it is building the machinery to turn radical ideology into political power. The numbers show the scale. The largest DSA chapter In America, roughly 90,000 volunteers. Hundreds of field leads, a candidate pipeline and coordination that continues after election day. This is how a movement stops looking like protest and starts looking like infrastructure. New York is the testing ground. The machine is already being built, unquote. And yeah, they're right. Basically everything in that little quote is 100% true. And that is what's making both the liberal and conservative establishment nervous. On the eve of July 4, Fox News ran a segment on the Commie Revolution.

[Jesse Waters]

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt joins us now. The Commie Revolution. Caroline, did you ever see this coming?

[Caroline Levitt]

This is not your granddaddy's Democrat Party. This is not the grand Democrat party of jfk. This is a full blown communist revolution that is taking over Capitol Hill.

[Jesse Waters]

If these Commies get in, they're going to be a powerful little caucus they're going to hear to blow things up. They're not here to negotiate Pentagon funding. They want zero Pentagon funding. They're in here to destroy the country. How would the President negotiate with people like that?

[Caroline Levitt]

I'm not sure you can. And I think that's why the President is being so bold and warning the American public against this communist Takeover of the Democrats. And as Ronald Reagan perfectly stated, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. If these communists are given a chance at power here in Washington D.C. if they take retake the majority in Washington away from the Republicans, we will be heading down a communist takeover.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

This concern by Jesse Waters of Fox News was also the topic of a Axios story from a few days after the New York primary with quotes from quote, unquote, centrist Democrat lawmakers threatening that there's quote unquote going to be a war if the new members of Congress try to utilize their block to win policy concessions. With one lawmaker calling the incoming members, quote, bomb throwers, not problem solvers. The idea is that if the Democrats win a small House majority in the next election, the growing coalition of Democratic, socialist and left wing populist lawmakers could leverage their needed votes to get concessions from party leadership and wield an outsized influence on the party. In this story, Axios wrote that left wing House reps, quote, moving on block would be able to kill party line votes to get their demands met, much like the far right House Freedom Caucus has done the past few years. Progressive Rep. De La Ramirez of Illinois is quoted in the piece saying that the Congressional Progressive Caucus has a, quote, responsibility to be the strongest voter bloc to take a stand not for the establishment, but for working people who send us to fight like hell for them. Threats of war from centrist Democrats and cries of communism from Fox News and President Trump show a real fear of the growing momentum DSA is having both as an organization and in the ballot box and the fear that this kind of politics won't be contained to big cities in blue states. Here is Mamdani being interviewed on ABC shortly after the June primary.

[Zoran Mamdani]

And you knocked off two Democratic incumbent members of Congress. Is this, is this like a unique moment in New York or is this the beginning of a national movement?

I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it. I think for far too long, what we as a party have been able to say to New Yorkers who are struggling is simply to explain why they're struggling, not actually offer them a vision for how to make life better. And these candidates, Brad, Darieliza, Claire, they ran campaigns that spoke to working people and that said life in the nation's most expensive city need not be this way any longer. And I can't wait to have them as partners in D.C. in that work.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

We'll be right back with Mike Johnson after this ad break.

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[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

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[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Three days after the DSA Swee, New York Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson gave the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Conference where he essentially did free propaganda for the dsa.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

The dsa? The Democrat Socialists of America. Sounds so innocuous, doesn't it? No, it doesn't. Don't say that. This is their platform. Listen, this, this is actually quotes from their platform that they published, I think about a day or two ago. You can find this on the Internet. Okay, here's just a sample of what they're about. They put this on paper, they're saying the quiet things out loud. Abolish the electoral college, replace the two party system with a multiparty democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections. Abolish. Well, establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Abolish ICE and grant amnesty for all.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

This isn't the quiet part out loud. This is Democratic Socialism 101. Empowering workers by increasing democratic control of our own government and the unaccountable corporations that rule over our lives. But here's more from Mike Johnson.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

End sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. Free Palestine. Quote for a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute US And Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza. Abolish the carceral state. Quote. Redirect police and prison funding to public services as steps towards abolishing the carceral forces of the capitalist state, y'.

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All.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

It goes on and on and on. Defund the Department of War. Replace the President and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen and subordinate to Congress, which they're hoping to take over. And the last one is abolish the Senate. Now, some of you may agree with that, but just leave that one there, okay? It's fine. I'm kidding.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

The fact that the sitting House speaker felt the need to address these proposals signifies a serious overton window shift, an opening up of the conversation on ending inhumane sanctions, reforming the Supreme Court, defunding the Pentagon, and abolishing the uniquely undemocratic institution of the Senate. Will that last one happen anytime soon? Probably not, but Mike Johnson apparently believes this is a topic worthy of public debate. This past Tuesday, Mike Johnson announced that the Pentagon is requesting an additional $350 billion.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

You've heard the President talk about how he wants to effectively double the funding for national defense. Look, we live in dangerous times. We're fighting communism on our own shores and we're fighting evil terrorists and tyrants around the world.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Meanwhile, also this past Tuesday, DSA released the full version of their new national platform, which is what Mike Johnson was quoting from. This platform is titled Workers Deserve More and beyond what Mike Johnson has already helpfully outlined. It also contains paid family leave for all workers, a 32 hour work week, a living minimum wage, canceling student debt, universal health care, building publicly owned social housing, honoring all treaties and tribal sovereignty, finishing reconstruction, ending mass incarceration and police immunity, a federal jobs guarantee, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure, ending the US war machine, a free Palestine, ending all aid to Israel, prosecuting those responsible for The Gaza genocide, D.C. statehood, getting rid of lobbyists, dark money and Citizens United, and publicly financing all elections while expanding and protecting voter rights and ending voter suppression and of course, abolishing ice. You can read the full platform in more [e-mail], i'll link it below. It's not very long and quite easy to read. It starts with a preamble to contextualize the goals of the organization and the purpose of an ambitious platform in our current moment. I'll quote from a section of that preamble now. If we lived in a classless society and governed ourselves, we could freely build a world without war or poverty. We could build a world where no one suffers for their race, gender or religion and everyone is free, equal and cared for. Building this world is the guiding star of our movement. When we labor for our common good instead of private profit, we can all have a secure and dignified life and use our time and talents how we wish to achieve this future. Our class must organize the Democratic Socialist of America is building a party whose goal is a democratic society of the working class. Our enemies are not just individual bosses, but the entire global system of capital. Not just this or that cop, judge or president, but the entire anti democratic structure of our society. We are workers fighting to transform society to win the battle for democracy, draft a new constitution and create a democratic socialist republic. DSA has written this program for ending capitalist oligarchy and creating a real democracy. Some of these demands may be won under our current system, but we know complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up. We push these demands to their furthest extent today so that we can fight for their fullest realization in a socialist future. Unquote. Meanwhile, let's check in on the liberals on CNN's State of the Union. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was asked about the recent DSA electoral wins.

[Caroline Levitt]

Democratic voters in New York chose three

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

candidates backed by Zoram Mamdani, far left, and democratic socialist candidates. What message do you take from that about where your party is?

[Josh Shapiro]

You know those were races in individual districts in a whole other state. I think you're seeing very different looking congressional races and certainly different Democratic candidates here in Pennsylvania.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

That's an interesting point being made by Governor Shapiro, who seems to be ignoring the fact that the first congressional primary win for a Democratic socialist this year was in Pennsylvania's third District. This past May, Democratic socialist Chris Robb beat a candidate backed by the retiring incumbent, a candidate who compared calling the genocide in Gaza a genocide to saying the N word. But Josh Shapiro is not the only one trying to argue that DSA success is limited to places like New York pundits have been saying the same thing ever since Mamdani won the primary over a year ago. But following the slate sweep last month, some Democratic lawmakers have tried to minimize the increasing trend of socialist candidates beating both moderate and sometimes even progressive politicians.

[Zoran Mamdani]

The reaction from Democrats has been something. You've had some prominent Democrats dismissive of what happened here. I mean, you had Senator Blumenthal say the effort to nationalize New York is going to fail. What happened in New York will be really irrelevant by the time of the elections in November. Hakeem Jeffries basically said the same thing, saying that this is not indicative of what needs to happen in November. What do you make of that?

You know, I think that when you ask Americans what they're feeling in this moment, amidst reports of an economy that's strengthening, of a stock market that's booming, you will hear an exhaustion and having to try and make ends meet every single day, every single week, every single month, and that it's getting harder and harder. And so a message of fighting for working people, we don't have to nationalize that message. That is a national message. The national crisis. And for far too long, all we've had to say as a party is opposition to the current administration. What do we have to say beyond that? And what these candidates offer is a vision that extends beyond the midterms. It extends beyond 2028. It speaks to what makes so many of us proud to be Democrats. It speaks to a vision that goes back to a New Deal understanding of what working people deserve. And I'll tell you that for too long, that kind of politics, you can only find it in history books. And we need to bring it back to the present day.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

On cnn, Josh Shapiro addressed his disagreements with one particular candidate in New York, Chevalier, saying, quote, her district voted for her, but I have profound differences from that particular candidate. And she's not someone who seemingly I would agree with on many things or that we share similar values. She ran on the Democratic ticket. I guess she is a socialist. Her voters in that district determined that she was the one they wanted representing her.

[Josh Shapiro]

I think what is important are the people who are making a lot of noise who are engaging in these performative politics, have to now figure out how to deliver results. It's one thing to speak in platitudes during a campaign. It's a whole other thing to actually deliver for people who are genuinely hurting, who genuinely need to see cost of living go down, meaning their ability to make ends meet, you know, go up. Fixing a broken Health care system, reining in excesses, being able to, you know, give people the promise of liberty that we've talked about. I think we as a party need to find our way toward candidates who actually can deliver for people and make their lives better.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

I'm curious who Shapiro thinks such candidates may be. Because the 2024 election showed that voters lost faith that national Dems could deliver any of those things. Whereas in just six months, Democratic Socialist Zora Mamdani delivered free childcare, a two year rent freeze, a new plan to make buses faster, all while balancing the budget and overcoming a $12 billion deficit left by Eric Adams.

[Zoran Mamdani]

We don't have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last November. And over the course of these last six months, what we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible. We've delivered free childcare for two year olds for the first time in New York City history. We've delivered tens of millions of dollars back to tenants who were taken advantage of by bad landlords. We've delivered 165,000 potholes being paved. And we've done all of these things while also delivering the lowest recorded crime in our city's history. That's what it looks like to have democratic socialism. And what you're seeing is that New Yorkers experienced this for six months and made the decision that they wanted to see more of it on the national stage as well.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Governor Shapiro has said the Democratic Party is going through, quote, a battle over what we believe in, unquote. And I think that's true. But moderates can never seem to really express what they believe in beyond opposition to both Trump and the Democratic Socialists. Meanwhile, Mamdani is on the news, clearly articulating what he believes in and why the party should believe in it too.

[Zoran Mamdani]

I think it has to stand for working people, and I think it has to be willing to fight for working people. And I think that there are some who are offended by the prospect of a party that knows who it fights for and goes every day to work for that. Because what we've seen over many years is a willingness to not only explain away the status quo, but frankly, even to look to benefit from the status quo. And that's not what working people are looking for from our party.

Can a democratic socialist get elected president?

I think a Democratic socialist can get elected anywhere across this country for any position. What I think we need to bring is a focus on working people, and

that's the direction that the party should go. In in terms of selecting a candidate

for 2028, I think the direction that the party should go in is how best to fight for working people. I think we need to have a platform and a vision that doesn't sound as if it was cooked up by consultants, but instead one that you would say in response to someone who's asking, why can't I afford my rent? Why can't I afford my groceries? Why can't I afford my childcare? We need to make clear who we stand for, how we're going to stand for them, and that we're actually willing to fight for them when the going gets tough.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

As Red Scare style rhetoric has surged on the right, we've begun to see more establishment Dems team up with conservative media and Republican politicians in trying to take down the DSA to protect their shared class interests. This was already happening throughout the New York mayoral race last year, eventually leading to Trump endorsing Andrew Cuomo on the eve of the election. But as the DSA keeps building power and winning races across the country, so too will this bipartisan ruling class alliance continue to spread. Late last month, Democratic advisor James Carville went on Fox News to discuss the danger of democratic socialism and the possibility of a party schism. Since then, Fox has been airing clips of Carville's own podcast where he attacks the DSA socialism surge is threatening to

[Zoran Mamdani]

shake up the Democratic Party. Big wins from Ondani backed candidates in New York this week. Just the latest for the Democratic Socialists of America. Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville says it could be time to split.

[Carrie Brownstein]

I actually do think it's time for

[Conservative Commentator]

Democrats to talk the S word schism. I really do. Everybody's always said, no, no, we're coalition, we're big tent. And there's some, there's just some that

[Carrie Brownstein]

I can't be in the same tent with.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Later in that segment, Fox brought on a quote unquote Democratic strategist who worked under Andrew Cuomo to rail against socialists trying to hijack the party.

[Democratic Strategist / Fox News Guest]

Now listen, I've been saying this for the last several months and trying to sound the alarm on this. These people are not Democrats. They are socialists. And what they've done is they have strategically in the last 10 years, since Bernie did his run in 2016, come up with a strategy in order to take over the Democratic Party. They very organized, they've been working on the local level. But make no mistake, these are not Democrats. They fundamentally do not believe in the same things as far as public safety, as far as the seizure of private property as far as celebrating terrorism and stoking anti Semitism. And so yes, big tent. We've always been a big tent. No to hijack tent. And the reality is they should start their own party and run there, but they know that won't be successful so they're trying to take over hours and it is a disaster.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

As already mentioned, moderate Democrats in the House are threatening quote unquote war. And high level Democratic Party figures have been airing frustrations that DSA candidates are benefiting from running on the Democratic ballot line while seeking to fundamentally change the nature of the party itself. Former Chair of the DNC Jamie Harrison wrote, quote, I say this with no ill will or animosity. If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don't run for our nomination. Don't use our resources, don't rely on our volunteers, don't use our infrastructure. Don't ask Democrats to invest their time, money and energy into your campaign focus on building the party you actually support. Political parties aren't perfect, but they're built by millions of people who knock doors, make calls, organize meetings and fight for the values they believe in. If you don't believe in the party, then don't ask its members to carry you across the finish line, unquote. Something that Jamie Harrison seems to not quite comprehend, which makes sense considering he's the former chair of the DNC under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, is that party nominees are supposed to be chosen by the voters, not party elites. And these Democratic Socialist candidates are winning primaries despite strong opposition from state Democratic parties, entrenched political machines in city government and national establishment forces. The DSA has to out organize the Democratic establishment and overcome the power of corporate money just to get on the Democratic ballot line in November. Of course, if DDSA candidates ran third party, then people like Jaime Harrison would just claim that they're spoiler candidates helping the GOP win. There's no satisfying these people. They just have to be beaten. Vice Chair of the Manhattan Democratic Party Mariama James smeared all DSA members as having a quote, unquote white supremacist mindset after she lost the primary for State Assembly District 65 in Chinatown and the Lower east side to DSA candidate Iopa Sairetupac in this same election cycle, the ADL and Congressman Josh Gottheimer attacked Mamdani for referring to dark money super PACs like AIPAC as quote, unquote monsters in reference to the Gramsci quote, the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now Is the time of monsters. The ADL and Congressman Gottheimer claimed that both dark money and the word monster invoked anti Semitic tropes. Meanwhile, senior advisor to Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who was up against Chevalier, weaponized anti Haitian animus towards Chevalier, who is Afro Latina. And on a Spanish language podcast, Espiat's senior advisor said that Mamdani wanted to change the demographics of the Washington Heights neighborhood in upper Manhattan by making it, quote, no longer be a bastion of the Dominican community, but instead a bastion of the Haitian Muslim community allied to him, unquote. Congressman Josh Gottheimer responded to the DSA's victory in the Democratic primary by continuing to attack the now Democratic nominees and released a centrist manifesto rebuking Communism. DSA asked Mayor Mamdani about the manifesto and the Democratic politicians like Gottheimer, who claim that socialists can't be Democrats.

[Zoran Mamdani]

Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic member of Congress, says, many of us believe, as do I, if you're a socialist, you are not Democrat. And in fact, they put out a manifesto today. I don't know, have you seen this thing?

Sounds pretty socialist to me.

It's not a communist manifesto. It's a moderate manifesto saying, we are capitalist, not socialists. We believe in a growing, fair and competitive economy. Entrepreneurship, ownership. I mean, this is a direct response. They've made it clear to what you did here on Tuesday, you know, that's

great, but what's a party if not its voters? And I'm proud to sit in front of you as the mayor of our city, having received more than a million votes a little over a little less than a year ago. And when we're talking about these incredible congressional candidates, they won their races, and they won their races with a vision of what politics should be and one that actually speaks to working people. And for a lot of people who ask themselves, what does democratic socialism mean? And you can tell them the answer. At a theoretical level, it's the choice to extend democracy from the ballot box the rest of their lives. But in terms of what it means, over these last seven months, we've seen a city with democratic socialist principles at the heart of it within our administration.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

We will return to discuss how communists and Ms. Rachel are teaming up to destroy America after this ad break.

[Carrie Brownstein]

Hey, Portlandia fans, Kerry Brownstein and Fred Armisen here, you know us, or rather you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken.

[Fred Armisen]

We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but Today, we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia. AO Rewatch our brand new podcast.

[Carrie Brownstein]

Each week we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process.

[Fred Armisen]

How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it.

[Carrie Brownstein]

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

[Fred Armisen]

Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised, not just words, but a song about.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Well, I thought he was gonna write.

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

I thought you were all gonna write a song.

[Fred Armisen]

I remember you thinking that.

[Carrie Brownstein]

Listen to Podlandia Ayo rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Last Saturday, Fox News ran a story about the DSA's new national platform. Workers deserve more. Let's take a listen.

[Fox News Reporter]

Fox News has obtained documents from the Democratic Socialists of America revealing the group's updated platform, which is even more radical than before. Now, they plan to release this next week. Listen to this. The United States Senate eliminated. Gone. The president and the Supreme Court replaced. The Department of War defunded all immigrants given amnesty. That is the plan.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

The rest of the Fox Report tried to paint DSA as being driven by anarchists, Marxists, and crazy communists who want to destroy the country. The report highlighted a few of the niche caucuses within DSA that focus on anti imperialism, promote anti electoralism and explicitly push communism. Later on in this segment, former White House Deputy chief of staff and Trump's current top electoral advisor, James Blair joined the program to discuss the communist menace.

[Fox News Reporter]

James, this is what you're up against in the midterms. And we keep hearing it's a New York problem. Except here we go. There are DSA candidates in Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Florida, New Hampshire. So what is your plan to defeat these radicals?

[James Blair]

Well, I think we just have to bring their issues to the American people and the American people are going to reject them. Let's talk about the views that they're actually espousing and what they want to bring to the country. You said it. As they say in their documents, no amnesty for all illegal immigrants, no deportations at all. Not even the criminals.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Let me think. When was the last time an unpopular incumbent party failed to address economic issues affecting working Class voters and just tried to hold onto power by fear mongering about the opposition's platform. Oh yeah, 2024, when the Democrats tried and failed spectacularly to campaign on stopping Project 2025. But now the tables are turned. So by all means Mr. Blair, don't try to offer an actual alternative platform that improves workers lives. Just tell them all about the DSA's platform instead. Especially when ICE is historically unpopular and can't seem to not murder someone every week. Believe it or not, this Fox News segment actually ended by talking about the threat posed by evil far left communist and children's educational YouTuber Ms. Rachel.

[Fox News Reporter]

Let's remind our viewers who Ms. Rachel is. If your kids do not watch her like mine do not. This is Ms. Rachel. Are you guys afraid to take on Ms. Rachel?

[James Blair]

I would love to take on Ms. Rachel. It'll be the end of her show, which would be a service to America. My kids and I have four under the age of six. They also don't watch her. She's radically far left. Her show is really about indoctrinating children. And honestly, if that's the fight we have to have, I'm happy to have it. No problem. We will beat her like a drum.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Yeah, that sure sounds like a message that will resonate with voters. Data for Progress ran a survey last month asking over 2,000 likely voters what actors are most harmful to our society and the economy. At number one was billionaires, number two, corporate landlords, three, sports gambling for artificial intelligence, and five, cryptocurrency. The Republican Party was found to be the seventh most harmful and the Democratic Party was the ninth. So despite popular opposition to things that DSA candidates are specifically trying to address, Trump seems to believe that just screaming communism will stymie the growth of democratic socialism and scare voters away from voting in their class interest liberal became so

[Conservative Commentator]

tarnished, but now it's communist. You know, they say social Democrats, no Social Democrat is a communist. All right, just say, you know, there's no. So if you look at the people that are running, it's crazy what they're doing. But we won't, we'll never let that happen to this country. Can't happen to the country. You can't have. There's no appetite for it.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

If there's no appetite for it, how come Bernie Sanders and Zorn Mamdani are the two most popular sitting politicians in the country? How come one in 10 Mamdani voters voted for Trump in 2024? That's over 100,000 voters who backed Trump and then a year later voted for Mamdani. Candidates like Zoran are not just appealing to a sizable portion of people who voted Trump, but are also pulling in new voters who might, for the first time in their lives, actually have something to vote for. In New York City, around 260,000 people registered to vote in 2025, more than double that of the last mayoral election. In 2021. Almost 2/3 of those new voters were under the age of 30. A Cato poll from late June found that among millennials, 50% were favorable towards capitalism, but 40% were favorable to socialism and 29% were favorable towards communism. These percentages total over 100 because this was a multiple choice selection, but the numbers among Gen Z are even more striking. According to this Cato poll, 53% of Gen Z respondents were favorable towards socialism, 45% to capitalism, and 38% to communism. The New York Times ran an article this past Tuesday about how support for NYC DSA candidates in the last election was not divided by race but rather by age, with older voters tending to support establishment candidates while younger voters backed insurgent challengers. A YouGov poll from June 29 showed that the favorability of socialism was at 58% among Democrats and just 11% unfavorable. Among independents, socialism was 34% unfavorable to 30% favorable and among Republicans 71% unfavorable to 11% favorable. An echelon poll from early July asked Democrats should the DSA have a larger or smaller influence on the Democratic Party than they currently do? 46% of Democrats said the DSA should have a larger influence, 21% said smaller, and 33% were unsure. Following the DSA's congressional victories last month, there have been multiple think pieces in the Atlantic about how the DSA has gotten too radical and abandoned its Social Democratic roots and how, quote unquote, Democrats became great by fighting the left in the post war period when liberals fought off a communist incursion into the Democratic Party led by Henry Wallace, former vice president to fdr. An opinion piece in the Washington Post, penned by the president and executive vice president of the centrist think tank Third Way, argued that, quote, DSA's radicalism makes it not a faction to be appeased, but a movement to be opposed. They insist that democratic socialist ideas are, quote unquote electoral poison and claim that, quote, far left governance has also been a failure while ignoring the biggest, most recent example of far left governance New York City. On first glance, this piece in the Washington Post presents a contradictory problem that DSA will hand Republicans perfect attack ad fodder that will tank Democrats electoral chances, especially in swing states. But on the other hand, they believe the biggest threat posed by DSA is that their candidates are continuing to win elections and may thus transform the makeup of the Democratic Party. Or as the authors write, the DSA's commitment is to quote, hollowing out the Democratic Party from within by primarying sitting Democrats and replacing them with quote unquote ideological zealots. To this point, the authors directly compare DSA's wave of success to the Republican Tea Party movement from around 2010 that reshaped the GOP and set the stage for Trump to come rolling in and slingshot the Republicans into power. They wrote that for years the Tea Party quote looked like self sabotage. Then a charismatic outsider arrived, harnessed the energy the Tea Party fomented and took over the Republican Party. Democrats who assume a takeover can't happen have learned nothing from the death of the party of Reagan. The DSA is building a left wing ideological movement waiting for its standard bearer, unquote. So the DSA is both electoral poison but also risks being so popular and so successful that democratic socialism could take over the Democratic Party. Despite all the concern trolling, the author's real fear isn't that DSA's radical rhetoric will sabotage Democrats ability to win elections, but that the DSA's recent victories could very well lead to a Democratic Party with workers at the forefront. And such a party would threaten the class interests of think tank ghouls like those at Third Way. One of the biggest results of DSA's electoral strategy beyond winning seats, is reorienting American politics back to a class based understanding of politics. Whether that's framed in red scare terms like capitalism versus Communism, more sloppulist rhetoric like regular people versus the quote unquote Epstein class or simply the working class against the bipartisan elites. The DSA's momentum and this new red scare point to a return of class struggle politics. And this is the result of Democratic socialists, especially the New York chapter of DSA who have been slowly building power the past decade, experimenting winning local races and increasing their organizational capacity. After the 2024 election, the Democratic Party was in a uniquely compromised state. Then State assembly member Zormadani and the DSA seized on this opportunity to redefine what Democratic politics are, show that they can win and demonstrate that they can succeed at governing and advancing the interests of the working class in the biggest city in the country while reacting to Mayor Ramdani's independence Day speech, Steve Bannon cautioned against dismissing the threat posed by Mamdani. This is quite serious. If you dismiss this guy and dismiss the people around him and dismiss the money in back of him, you are missing something that's more powerful than Obama. And it's not just this guy, it's the team around him. Of course, Steve Bannon cannot understand that something like Mamdani isn't the result of big money, but rather regular people, individual donors, and 100,000 volunteers who actually believe in fighting for a positive political project. The next major test of that project will be in Wisconsin, where Democratic Socialist candidate Francesca Hong is running for governor. If she wins her upcoming primary come November, this election will be the biggest test case to see if Democratic Socialists can organize and win statewide in a swing state. See you on the other side.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here, listed directly in Episode Descriptions. Thanks for listening.

[Carrie Brownstein]

Hey Portlandia fans Carrie Brownstein and Fred

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Armisen here, the dream of the 90s

[Carrie Brownstein]

is alive in podcast form.

[Fred Armisen]

We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.

[Carrie Brownstein]

And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann and many more.

[Fred Armisen]

Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised not just words, but a song.

[Narrator / Host of It Could Happen Here]

Well, I thought you were all going

[Commentator / Fox News Analyst]

to write a song.

[Fred Armisen]

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tarika Foster Brasby]

I'm Tareka Fosta Brasby. What's up y'?

[Democratic Strategist / Fox News Guest]

All?

[Tarika Foster Brasby]

I'm your girl, Sheryl Swoooops and it's WNBA All Star season. The best players in the world are on the floor. Every week. I get to break down the goats of today and I get to break down the goats with the goat of all time. You check us out Levels to this New episodes every week on the iHeart Women's Sports Network. Listen to levels to this with Sheryl Swoopes and Tarika Foster brasby on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.