Why Socialists Are Rising Within the Democratic Party

- Hey, everybody, welcome, Mark Calpard here.

“Thank you for joining me next up special bonus edition”

to talk about this extraordinary story that we've been covering all week. And I really, I don't think people have gotten their arms around, their heads around, what's going on between the socialist faction,

the Social Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party.

It's just an incredible story,

and I've compared it to what's happened with Donald Trump in 2016 when an outsider took over the Republican Party, and there's some similarities there. We've talked about this, the motivation. People wanting a change in the status quo,

not trusting a political party, not trusting what businesses, usual Washington DC, wanting an outsider, all that's the same. But this is extraordinary what's happening with the socialist.

The socialist one, two house primaries. They'd be two Democratic and Combin House members. The socialist have a grizzly risen in strength, and some people say, well, the Chisney York, and it's just two who are socialist

and Grand Platoners, not a socialist in Maine. Lays and gentlemen, the rise of the socialist is a massive story.

Now some of you are going to say,

“oh, this is the worst thing they could happen”

and we're not a socialist nation, and this is horrible. But some of you are going to say, well, that's great, because the two major parties definitely the Republicans, and even the Democrats, don't represent the socialist point of view,

which is extremely popular with tens of millions of Americans. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist, joined the Democratic party because he saw that that was the vehicle to try to become president of the United States and had the Democrats not stolen the nomination

with a wave from him in 2016 and 2020. The Democratic party would have been running a socialist for president, and would have been interested in to see how he did. The socialist say, we are a popular,

we will win general elections across the country if you give us a chance, and they've decided that the best way to put on offer their socialist views is to become part of the Democratic party to run for Democratic nominations.

Our system is biased against other parties.

“If you go to any other industrialized democracy,”

you'll find in the parliamentary system, a range of parties, far left, far right, more moderate, centrist, green. And these parties can win elections, can win individual seats. If you go to the last 50 years

and you just look at federal and governor, Senate has some governor, a handful of independence of one. And typically, the independence of one

are basically Republicans or Democrats.

These socialist are different. They're on the far left, and they're determined, determined to take over the Democratic party because they know that if they try to make a socialist party competitive on its own

because of the bias in our system for Democrats and Republicans, it won't work. So these two socialist who won in New York City are getting a ton of attention, rightfully so. And the president and the speaker of the House

are calling them communists. And Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House, is trying to avoid talking about them. It gets asked about them, every interview he does. And he's done a lot, and he just says,

well, first he says, homin' homin', homin' up. But then what he says is, we've got a lot of people running. This is just two races. And we're all united about stopping Donald Trump. And then he starts talking about the more moderate

people who've won nominations, right? Does not want to talk about them. Does not want to be forced to repudiate their views because, and this is the key to me. You could say, well, it's just new to New York races.

You go into any congressional district in the country. Anyone, in the reddest district, the blueest district, the purpleest district, they're socialists there. And in some places, they're organizing. And in all places, they're at their food co-ops

and their acusact tournaments. And they say, the Democrats for Republicans, tweetled the entweetled dumb. Not much more used for the Democrats and Republicans. And in some ways, the Democrats make them

the same or angry. I remember one of the searing moments, I should write more about this than I have. One of the searing moments for me in 2016 was at an event in New Hampshire talking to a bunch

of Sanders supporters, men and women, young, man, young women. They're anger about Hillary Clinton who represented them the establishment. Too many foreign wars, too conservative on economics. Their anger at Hillary Clinton was so much more intense

than their anger at the Republicans. Because their view was that the Republicans were going to Republican, but the Democratic nominee of our party, the party that's more to the left in America, should not be someone

as conservative in their view as Hillary Clinton. Someone who's not for single payer, health care,

Someone who's been open to free trade agreements,

someone who's supported foreign wars. Someone who has supported a criminal justice measures that their view are too extreme. This intense feeling about the Democratic party and the party of the Democratic Socialists

is quite something. And I'm going to show you three Socialists, three Democratic Socialists who have spoken out this week in reaction to what they feel is the hostility from the right calling them communists.

And from the Democrats saying, we don't want you to party. Jamie Harrison, he's been a guest here. Former chairman of the Democratic Party said, look, don't run as a Democrat if you're not a Democrat. If you're a Socialist, a Democratic Socialist,

start your own party. Don't run to take jobs away from Democratic candidates and ask for financial and other help from the Democratic Party. That's the other big thing that the Socialists

critical of Hillary Clinton about.

Don't take money, don't take big corporate money. Don't give paid speeches for Goldman Sachs. So Jamie Harrison, say, find your own money. Find your own infrastructure, your own volunteers. So I want you to listen to three sound bites

from this week from Democratic Socialists, responding to what they feel is hostility towards them. The first is one of the two people who want to be a Democratic House incumbent in the Democratic Primary in New York City.

It's probably the one who's gotten the most attention. Darryl Liza Chavallier. She is extremely confident about her place in the world, about what she's going to do, because she'll be a member of the House because it's New York City.

She's not going to lose in the general election.

Here she is talking to Ali Valcian, MSNow,

about allegations that she had communist as three police. - Valigation. And you're going to appear in all sorts of people's ads. All sorts of Republicans ads, I say, this is what you're going to get

if you vote for the Democrats, a communist.

“- You know, I think that is that framing is one”

that I've been very proud to be able to say, I don't respond to one in which I have been very intentional to say, I won't be reactive. We are presenting a vision of what we're fighting for, and I think for far too long, we have had politics

that is reactive to what Republicans are doing. What we need is Democrats who are actually going to present a positive vision, one that sets the tone for what we should be talking about, which is the issue of affordability,

which is the issue of how our budgets are moral documents. If we say that we want to invest in working people in this country, then we need to do that, and our budgets need to reflect that. If we say that we value immigration and immigration justice,

we need to make sure that that is also reflective in our policy. And so I'm very proud of a campaign that we built, that centers those ideals, that centers those values and that vision for what we need as a community.

“And that's how I'll continue to move forward in Congress.”

And I think that for far too long, this reactive conversation of what we should be afraid of has prevented us from being able to have a politics of hope and a politics of life. That Democrats can actually identify with.

When the majority of the Democratic base has been seeking for the Democratic Party to act. Now, this lady, she's known as D-A-C already. She's already got an A-O-C type thing. I gotta take my hat off tour.

And again, listen to me and don't just dismiss my saying anything positive about her because she's a socialist, not a communist, at least she's suggested. Number one, like Bernie Sanders, she cares about ideas. Now, you may think her ideas are wrong,

maybe you think they're right, but I used to watch with great sympathy for Senator Sanders when reporters would want to talk to him about process. So, you know, when this primary, we drop out of the race when he's running for president

and in Congress when they ask him personality questions. He didn't want to answer personality questions. He doesn't want to answer questions about process or polls. He wants to answer questions about substance. It had to make the real lives of real people better.

And he's serious about that. And so he's she, my hat is off tour. She's saying, working people aren't doing well enough in this country and they're not. Now, again, her solutions may not work,

but like Mayor Mondami, single-minded focus on affordability on making the real lives of real people better, like Bernie Sanders' same thing.

“And I have no doubt that that's why she's won.”

I have no doubt that although other issues like Israel played a role, I have no doubt that she could not have been elected beating an incumbent member of the House of Representatives if she did not appeal to where a lot of the voters are, which is they want someone who will shake up the status quo.

They don't want someone who's been part of Washington.

in her district, I think for sure she's right.

And I don't think she's that wrong about the whole country. So that's that's someone who's saying, they can call me a communist all day one. I'm going to talk to the voters when she gets to Congress. I'm going to talk to my colleagues about how to make

the real lives of real people better.

“And I think when people dismiss the rise of the socialists,”

they're failing to realize that they're appealing to a strong desire for a change in the status quo to make the real lives of real people better. Now, here's another socialist. This is Gustavo Cordilla.

He is the co-chair of the Democratic Socialist of America in New York. And he is well aware of this question of should they be running to be Democrats or should they separate themselves? And he knows how Democrats feel about this, at least more

monitor ones.

Here is the Vice Chair of the New York Democratic Socialists

of America, Gustavo Cordilla S2, please. - Her candidates run his Democrats on the Democratic ballot line. We contest the primaries and when they're in the legislature, they're part of the Democratic Party caucus.

But we don't agree with the way the Democratic Party establishment organizes or runs its party apparatus. And so we try to build independence by focusing on volunteer lead movement. We think that everyone should be able to be trained

and to become someone who can participate in the political process. And we don't really think that Democratic Party campaigns in the establishment are run that way. And I think you really see that difference

in the races like we're having tonight. And I think in terms of the agenda, there's a problem in the Democratic Party where they are funded by billionaire donors.

And at the same time, they're trying to represent the working

class.

“And in our opinion, you have to choose between the billionaire”

class and the working class. It's just impossible to satisfy all of them. - Okay, again, don't send an email, say, mark your socialists, you're saying such nice things about the socialists.

I'm just trying to help explain to you, based on my reporting, why people find them appealing. And he highlighted to the Democratic Party like the Republican Party in many cases, is too closed to people.

It's a club. It's for insiders. If you want to be a top-level volunteer, if you want to run for office yourself, he's saying, yeah, we'll run his Democrats

'cause that's what we need to do. But we want a party that's more open. We want a party that's more democratic with a small deal. We want a party that better reflects the aspirations of those who don't like the status quo.

We don't want the party of Chuck Schumer and Hi-Keeam Jeffries. We want the party of the people. And then the other thing he says about big money, I mentioned earlier, the socialists believe what many people,

including many Trump supporters and maga belief, too much big money, they see, if somebody's giving hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars to a politician or a political candidate, they're gonna call the shots,

they're gonna, they're gonna, they paid the paper, they get to decide what gets played and they don't want that. They see a direct correlation between how the working class is falling behind and it's falling behind the United States

and the influence of big money and politics. And again, I don't think there analysis is wrong

“about what the problem is and that's why they have”

so much leverage right now with the grassroots and that's why it's so difficult for the establishment of the party to respond, just as it was difficult for the establishment of the Republican party to respond to the rise of Donald Trump.

They're wedded to the status quo for a reason. They get elected and real-life because they know how to raise big money and they had higher the consultants to spend the big money on negative ads

to destroy anyone who might try to beat them, whether it's an primary or whether it's in the general election. The Democrat Socialists want to have more power to the people who can be against that. The Democratic Socialists want to have an openness

to the process where money does not decide policy. Money does not decide elections. And you could tell from him, from that guy, that he's got kind of an ambivalence about the Democrats, doesn't love the Democratic party,

but seems comfortable working inside of it and it's kind of reconciled himself as AOC has Bernie has. AOC and Bernie, they're in congressional committees, they're dealing with establishment folks all the time.

They're comfortable with that. Not in every way they're not taking corporate pack money and other things, but they're comfortable with the Democratic Party. That guy is too.

Here's someone who's not comfortable with the Democratic Party. And I want you to listen to this one really carefully. It's an influencer named Facts and Fire. And Ms. Facts and Fire is fired up

because she is correctly, she's correctly describing

They're rather than welcoming them in,

“rather than trying to understand what they're about”

and why they've been able to do what they've done, elect a mayor of New York City, about to elect a mayor of Washington DC, elect a mayor of Seattle, have two of their members beat,

House Republican, House Democratic incumbents. Rather than saying, let's work together, let's incorporate your ideas into our ideas. Let's make you a valuable part of our coalition, Democratic Party's freaking out.

Here's Facts and Fire. So you don't want left this in your party, but you also don't want us to create our own party. You don't want to listen to us or listen to any of our policy suggestions,

but you also want us to continue to vote for your candidates no matter what, whether we agree with them or not. You don't want us to organize and to do it the right way and to push the party that you said we can push the left to the left, but you also don't want us

to build our own power outside of your party institution. Which one is it? 'Cause it's sounding like fascism, regardless. Do you want democracy? Do you want expanded representation or don't you?

“Or do you want people to just agree with your political line?”

This is what we call y'all Blue Magga. This is what we call y'all Blue Magga, this is what we call y'all Blue Magga. Blue Magga, this Facts on Fire, again, she's speaking a lot of sense. She's saying to the Democrats,

you're embarrassed about us. You're worried that the Republicans are gonna say you're socialists and so you're keeping us at arms length, maybe five times arms length, but you want our energy

and you don't want to kick us out. She has expressed an understanding of the dilemma that the establishment parts of the Democratic Party feel about the rise of the Democratic Socialists and the infiltration inside the Democratic Party

of the socialist. She's expressed it so well. Now her point of view is, stop the shenanigans. Stop saying one thing on over here and another thing contradictory over here.

I'm not sure, I maybe will book Facts and Fire on the program 'cause I wanna ask her, what does she really want? What's her preferred act of?

“Does she want to be a part of the Democratic Party?”

Or is her preferred act come a stay out of it and say a party that's a party of corporate interest, a party that's of the establishment

is never gonna be a good fit for Facts on Fire

and other socialist. It's a dilemma for both sides. It's a dilemma for the establishment. It's a dilemma for the socialist. And we always try to tell you what's coming next up

where is this gonna go? I'm gonna keep reporting on it 'cause I don't know where it's gonna go. Exactly. I don't know how the Democratic leaders

are gonna handle it. I don't know how much the socialist will show discipline because when they talk about the things they're for that are popular and non-controversial in some quarters, they do better when they get caught up

in some of their past controversial statements about 9/11 or October 7th, they have more of a problem. So I don't know where that's gonna go exactly. But what I do know is that the Democratic Party now is flat-footed.

We can't it.

They're unclear about how powerful the socialist are

and I think they're understating it. And they're unclear about how to deal with it because whether you're talking about the two districts in New York where they're meeting comments or you're talking about districts in places all over the country

where they need the socialist to turn out and vote for the Democratic nominee who is an a socialist. Or whether you're talking about the 2028 presidential election or the party platform

or the Congressional agenda in the next Congress not every Democrats' socialists, not every Democrats' stands for the issue positions that these socialists are for. But this is a big part of the energy

in the party. It's a big part of the Democratic coalition. And for now they're inside the tent, but man, this is fragile. It's a fragile, fragile thing. So we'll try to get facts and fire on here.

We'll see if we can we can razz or get her on here. But man, she speaks for tens of millions. They're distrust to the Democrats. They're wearing this about being part of the Democratic Party since Tuesday has been validated in their minds.

They said, well, maybe we don't want to be part of the Democrats 'cause they don't like us. And they're not celebrating their victories of the socialist. They're saying, well, let's talk about other stuff.

Now they're not denatsing them either. Talking Jeffries is too smart to do that. But they're not celebrating. They're not saying we should become a socialist party, let alone a communist party.

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