It’s Prime Time for Socialists. How We Make Our Case Matters.
Democratic socialists have a historic opportunity to make socialism a mass politics that wins over millions. We can’t take full advantage of that opportunity without carefully calibrating our rhetoric and demands.
For decades, socialists mostly talked to each other. Now that Americans are actually listening, we can’t hold onto the rhetorical habits we picked up in isolation. (John Lamparski / Getty Images)
If a store where you live still carries newspapers, you can try a little experiment. Pick up the most recent issue of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the New York Post or the Washington Post. Start flipping through the pages, and see how many seconds it takes you to find the word “socialist” in a headline.
In August 2026, this won’t be a very time-consuming experiment. Since Zohran Mamdani became mayor of the most important city in the capitalist world, socialism has been a hot topic. Now several other Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members have won their primaries and are likely headed to Congress, putting socialists even more in the spotlight. DSA conferences are getting long write-ups in mainstream national publications. Cable news hosts are eagerly seeking out socialists to defend their ideas. When DSA put out a new platform document, the Speaker of the House denounced it on the floor of Congress.
This explosion of visibility has come with some growing pains. Democratic socialism was long a marginal force in American politics, if it was even in the mix at all. Where in the last several decades we’ve become far too accustomed to mostly talking about our ideas to each other, we are now speaking before a general audience.
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