John Edwards, a Democrat once considered to be the second coming of John F. Kennedy, ran on a presidential campaign slogan of “two Americas” in 2004. Edwards ultimately didn’t win the nomination in 2004, but he was chosen as John Kerry’s running mate. Edwards continued his us-versus-them narrative throughout the campaign, including at the Democratic National Convention that year.

At the convention, Edwards said, “We have much work to do, because the truth is, we still live in a country where there are two different Americas. One, for all of those people who have lived the American dream and don’t have to worry, and another for most Americans, everybody else who struggles to make ends meet every single day.”

In the eyes of the Democrats in 2026, the message is essentially the same, albeit on steroids.

“You can’t earn $1 billion,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently argued. “You can get market power. You can break rules. You can do all sorts of things. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they’re worth. But you can’t earn that, right? And so … you have to create a myth of earning it.”

That’s the Democratic narrative heading into the midterm elections, with early voting less than 100 days away. It’s a classic case of exploiting voters’ emotions, particularly younger adults, who believe a capitalistic system is rigged against them.

Say what you will about Ocasio-Cortez, but she is politically street smart and savvy. She reads polls telling her about the massive shift among liberal millennials and Gen Zers who are increasingly embracing socialism. A growing number of these people are not married and refuse to get hitched in the future. Having children is largely out of the question. Instead, their phones and the internet are increasingly more important than human interaction itself, especially when with family.

There are tangible numbers that back this up: According to an NBC News poll last year, when asked for their personal definition of success, men who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 ranked having children and being married No. 1 and No. 4, respectively. But among young women who voted for Kamala Harris, having children and being married ranked No. 12 and No. 11, respectively.

Overall, 66% of Democrats, regardless of age, embrace socialism, while 42% embrace capitalism. So if you’re wondering why socialists are increasingly winning in deep-blue cities, here’s your answer: If two-thirds of the electorate no longer view socialism as a bad thing, and the energy is largely within that element of the party, an establishment candidate has no shot to win in these cities.

But a look at the country as a whole shows socialism isn’t exactly sweeping across anything outside of major cities in blue states. Overall, Trump won 2,633 counties versus just 427 for Harris. Her victories were largely confined to large population centers and perhaps some adjoining areas. Overall, only 19 states went to the Democrat. As a result, an increasing number of Democrats believe the path forward is to promote more socialist candidates to run outside of blue cities and in purple states.

This strategy will truly be the tell of where this country is headed, because if Graham Platner, the Nazi tattoo guy who has touted communism in writings in the past, can win in Maine against longtime incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), or if Abdul El Sayed, who has campaigned with the antisemitic socialist Hasan Piker, wins in Michigan against former Rep. Mike Rogers, that would be a 9.8 Richter-scale shift that would suddenly make the aforementioned Ocasio-Cortez a serious contender for the Democratic nomination.

“Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty,” El Sayed wrote in a 2020 social media post. “Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.”

El Sayed was recently asked about the statement above and appears to have not backed away from his defunding pledge.

“Well, let me just speak to a vision for public safety that I think all of us can agree with,” El Sayed responded Monday. “I think all of us want to be safe. We want to know that we can get home safely. We don’t want to worry about being the victim of somebody’s violence, whether it’s from a neighbor or the state itself.”

In Texas, James Talarico is apparently the second coming of Beto O’Rourke: a young, affable candidate who portrays himself as a guy with Texas values. But after insisting that God, the Heavenly Father, is actually nonbinary, and actually bragging that his campaign is the first “non-meat” campaign in state history, or actually saying that he believes that there are not two, but six genders, it’s hard to see how Talarico wins in the Lone Star State.

With positions like this, the bet here is that Platner and El Sayed are also far too radical for states such as Michigan and Maine, either, but all could win quite comfortably in cities such as Minneapolis or Portland, Oregon.

“In the last eight months, progressive and democratic socialist candidates all over this country have been winning major victories,” boasted socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a rally in New York this week. He ain’t wrong. And the organization that is helping to fund these candidates, the Democratic Socialists of America, is far more structured than the Democratic National Committee.

“The reason that the Democratic Socialists of America is doing so well is because they are better funded and organized than the DNC, by far,” Fox’s Dana Perino said last week on The Five. “They have weekly meetings, elocution lessons to get all on the same page. They make little friendship bracelets for each other. It is a community.”

Meanwhile, the DNC is getting crushed from a fundraising perspective. The Republican National Committee currently has $123.9 million in cash on hand with zero debt, while the DNC has just $14.4 million in cash on hand while being $17.5 million in debt. DNC Chairman Ken Martin will likely be ousted if this continues, especially after releasing a sloppy, incomplete, heavily annotated autopsy report on what went wrong with the 2024 presidential election.

As far as leadership, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sits at about 27% in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is at 25%. Overall, the Democratic Party itself only receives 42% approval from its own voters, the first time in history it has been underwater among its own base.

What all these numbers create are ample opportunities for socialists to keep winning elections. But here’s the catch: Socialists will only win when there’s no meaningful Republican opposition.

Blue cities, one by one, will fall to the socialist movement. The energy, camaraderie, and organization are too strong for any establishment Democrat to compete.

However, as this is happening, Republicans will be gifted the perfect binary choice to offer to voters in purple and red states from Maine to Michigan to Texas: Do you prefer communism or common sense? Socialism or stability? Bigger government, more spending, higher taxes, higher crime … or freedom, fiscal restraint, lower taxes, and a safer community?

HOW DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA ARE RESHAPING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM THE INSIDE

It’s a bad news-good news road map.

Bad news: Socialists are gaining power in U.S. cities. Good news: It’s a surefire way for the Democratic Party to lose swing districts and states and national elections for years to come.