Class Traitors Are Welcome in the Socialist Movement
New York media has had a field day digging into the backgrounds of socialist leaders like NYC-DSA Cochair Gustavo Gordillo. But what exactly is the “gotcha” — that some people who lead comfortable, secure lives want security and comfort for everyone?
With the socialist movement on the rise in the United States, the media is getting desperate in its attempts to halt its momentum with absurd and nonsensical attacks on the background of individual socialist leaders like Gustavo Gordillo. (Selcuk Acar / Anadolu via Getty Images)
We are in a moment of particular fascination with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) across the nation. With the victory of congressional candidates like Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Chris Rabb, and Melat Kiros, DSA has arrived on the political stage, proving that the election of Zohran Mamdani was not a fluke but a harbinger of a growing movement. Outlets like Fox News have seized on all sorts of DSA content, from interviewing cochairs and National Political Committee members to, for some reason, breathlessly reporting on a Y2K-themed prom fundraiser thrown in Los Angeles.
That coverage took a turn last week, with the press and pundits obsessing over Gustavo Gordillo, the democratically elected cochair of the New York City chapter of DSA, a thirty-eight-year-old former union electrician who has had his personal life suddenly put under a microscope as if he were Princess Diana. He’s not the first; it’s happened to other DSA leaders before him, such as Cea Weaver.
Over the past week, local and national media have desperately tried to get readers and viewers to care that Gordillo lives in a house purchased by his father. A New York Times profile quickly turned into a long investigative saga by multiple outlets; for some reason, the local public radio station’s outlet Gothamist trekked to an anarchist bookstore to ask patrons about the story. (Spoiler: turns out nobody there really cared.) Numerous column inches have been dedicated to this story; city council members have weighed in; journalists now are camping outside the Brooklyn row house. Maybe the paparazzi will be outside the next chapter meeting.
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