It's no secret that some of the Republican Party has been hijacked by right-wing extremism. But even as the Trump campaign doubled down on its populist conservatism, the former president had the clarity to distance himself (at least publicly) from the unpopular plan known as Project 2025, a policy agenda from the conservative Heritage Foundation with far Right views on abortion access and civil rights. "I know nothing about Project 2025," former President Trump repeatedly said, adding that its proposals were "ridiculous and abysmal." Trump's campaign later leaked that it would bar Project 2025's authors from positions in his administration.
While some of President Trump's appointments raise serious concerns about how he plans to govern, his efforts to avoid alienating mainstream Americans leading up to the election were essential to his victory.
And yet, the Democrats have consistently failed to do the same and stand up to the influence of their own version of Project 2025—the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). They won't be able to recapture the majority until they do.
An analysis of the positions American voters held against Vice President Harris this election reveals that the majority of them were not rooted in the Democratic Party's platform. Instead, they stemmed from the policy agenda of the DSA. Since 2015, the once marginal group has become the most prominent "socialist" organization in American politics, though the DSA in its latest manifestation is no longer socialist or democratic. It is a rigidly neo-Marxist organization.
Eight Democratic congresspeople are affiliated with the DSA, but the DSA is still small—and shrinking in the aftermath of its tone deaf response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
Still, the Democrats, a party of over 40 million registered voters, have been too eager to court the DSA's fewer than 100,000 members. The party has allowed the DSA to set the terms of engagement on key issues like immigration and crime, with slogans like "open borders" and "defund the police," making it all too easy for Republicans to tar their opposition.
For years, the DSA has been trying to take over the Democratic party. DSA-affiliated candidates have competed in Democratic primaries, sometimes defeating stalwart members of the party. Most famously, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley, and Jamaal Bowman took out Eliot Engel. At the local level, the DSA's people on the ground have shaped local Democratic Party platforms. In Denver, for example, a chapter of the Democratic Party endorsed the Marxist idea that "the economy should be democratically owned."
In most instances, however, the DSA has not won outright victories so much as it has capitalized on the Democrats' naive assumptions about coalition-building. Democratic leaders have been too afraid of alienating the extreme minority of DSA supporters, demonstrating cowardice in failing to condemn the DSA and wishful thinking in hoping to coexist with radical ideologues who seek to co-opt the party. This has yielded terrible results for the Democrats.
For the sake of our country and the future of the party, Democratic leaders should use this election as a wake-up call to distance themselves from the DSA's ironically illiberal positions. In particular, the DSA's unpopular stances on immigration, crime, and Israel sank Kamala Harris's bid for president, because she was perceived as weak on these issues.
Intimidated by the DSA activists' calls for "open" and "demilitarized" borders, for years the Biden-Harris administration accommodated far too much lawlessness across our borders. The inaction alienated Americans, including mainstream Democrats, two-thirds of whom view the situation at the border as a major problem.
As a proud immigrant from Mexico, I recognize the contributions of immigrants, but polling shows even immigrants like me are gravely concerned about border security in a world where despotic regimes are intent on harming us.
The DSA agenda proudly calls for defunding the police, abolishing cash bail and freedom for all "incarcerated people." Following the summer of 2020, George Soros helped fund anywhere between 25 and 75 DAs whose agendas resembled DSA policies, one of whom became the first DSA-endorsed elected U.S. prosecutor. This led to an explosion of crime in Democrat-controlled cities, to the point that CVS and Walgreens stores across the country now need to lock up deodorant. On election day, the American people expressed overwhelming support for tough-on-crime laws. While Vice President Harris made attempts toward the end of her campaign to lean into her background as a prosecutor, she was unable to overcome a record of publicly aligning with DSA-supported policies like "Defund the Police."
There is also the DSA's troubling anti-Israel, antisemitic and pro-terror stances. Following the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, the DSA's youth organization, Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), played a key role in organizing encampments that threatened Jewish students. They burnt American flags and celebrated terrorists as heroes. These incitements to violence without goals for conflict resolution are concerning for most Americans, who reject hate of all kinds; who support Israel's right to exist and defend itself; and who are increasingly concerned about terrorism.
The DSA is also the political home of "victim versus oppressor" identitarian politics, stating, "Our fight to end capitalist exploitation is inextricably tied to our fight to end oppression." Trump made significant gains in winning working-class, Black and Hispanic votes, sending a message that the DSA's narrative about the victimization of minorities isn't resonating. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial spirit and free market system that fuels our nation is at odds with the anti-meritocracy stance of the DSA.
Seeking to incorporate organizations rooted in ideological extremism is a fool's errand, because extremists' dogmatic way of thinking makes them increasingly rigid and intolerant. In a stark reminder to the party that no amount of appeasement would be enough for extremists, the DSA pulled their endorsement for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the organization's most prominent representative, for trying to build bridges with the Jewish community. Even the founders of DSA are now exiles who consider the organization too extremist.
Overall, the DSA stands against the freedom, prosperity and inclusivity that were once authentic cornerstones of the Democratic Party. Until Democrats free themselves from the chains of extremism under which the DSA have placed them and until they formulate policies and take actions to solve problems rather than assign blame, they will be unable to fulfill their party's promise. As the Democratic political establishment looks for where to assign blame, they should look no further than the DSA—and undergo the requisite introspection to reject extremism before it's too late.
Daniel Lubetzky is the founder of KIND Snacks and an investor on "Shark Tank." He is the founder of the Builders Movement, a post-partisan citizen's movement to replace the "us vs. them" mentality with constructive problem-solving.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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