For years, Republicans warned that the Democratic Party’s activist left was moving toward socialism. In 2026, the debate is no longer mainly about labels: Democratic-socialist candidates are winning nominations, while the Democratic Socialists of America is publishing, in unusually candid language, the anti-American political and economic system it wants to create. 

In a recent vote in Congress, there was a resolution denouncing socialism in America, but 192 Democrats voted to support socialism. Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said it is “the end goal of seizing the means of production.” Democrat Cea Weaver wrote that government has a “sacred right to seize private property” and “impoverish the white middle class.” Other Democrats like Francesca Hong have said that they want to not only defund the police, but they want to have a world without prisons — making violent crime dramatically expand.