Socialism is so over. At least that’s what mainstream media outlets wanted you to believe following a June 28 primary that produced disappointing results for the Left, when only one of the five Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)–backed candidates (Sarahana Shrestha in the Hudson Valley) won their election. Gotham Gazette’s headline read “New York Left Hits Wall.” The City declared this a “setback.” The New York Post cited the wisdom of professional Democratic strategists who proclaimed that the socialists failed because “the left needs to understand where the majority of voters in the Democratic Party are . . . [and] need to meet them where they are on the issues.” Perhaps the short-lived ascendancy of democratic socialism and left progressivism in New York was over.

Reports of socialism’s death, however, proved greatly exaggerated. The largely positive results in August primaries showed that the socialist electoral project was far from exhausted. But even if socialists hadn’t performed well last month, declarations of the Left’s end ignore the reality in New York: only the socialist and progressive movements in the state have solved the problems perpetuated and worsened by the New York State Democratic Party and its leadership.

Like the rest of the United States, New York suffers from myriad social, economic, and political problems. Currently, only socialists and their progressive allies are proposing the kinds of policy solutions necessary to address the unmet needs of working New Yorkers.