Democrats no longer have the No. 1 weapon to keep their socialist wing in line
American politics is an ever-changing game of power and big money. For the modern Democrat Party, that means being challenged and sometimes eclipsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – and there is little to nothing the Democrat Party can do about its rise.
The United States has had many political parties in its history. They include everything from the Federalists (1789) and the Whig Party (1830) to the Libertarian Party (1971) and the Green Party (2001).
The current Democrat Party (1828) is the longest reigning major political party in American history.
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The role of the many lesser-known parties in American history has been to chasten the then-dominant parties and/or to champion particular issues – such as the Greenback Party (1874), which fought for paper money in the late 1800s. While that Greenback Party is no more, paper money has replaced gold as the dominant American currency.
Of course, the shortcomings of the Whig party resulted in the rise of the Republican Party.
Today, the dominance of the Democrat Party is being challenged by the Democrat Socialists of America – a modern version of the Socialist Party that began in 1901, or, perhaps, the American Communist Party that started in 1919.
DSA candidates are loudly fielding candidates across the country with no greater success than New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's victory.
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The establishment Democrats are raising their voices in alarm, garnering such headlines as these:
Recently, Van Jones, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, warned that the DSA was "hijacking" the party.
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Other Democrats welcome the DSA, stating that the Democrat Party is a "big tent" party. After all, as I wrote recently, the DSA and the Democrats are solely aligned on the major issues such as the Green New Deal, taxation, government healthcare, defunding the police and more.
The plain truth, however, is that the Democrat Party has no control over the DSA and, more importantly, cannot stop it from claiming its members are "Democrats" and redefining the Democrat Party.
That is so because, 20 years ago, the mother’s milk of politics – money – escaped the clutches of the tight-fisted control of the major parties.
In the olden days, before 2010, the political parties dominated the selection of candidates through fundraising, endorsements, and expenditures on behalf of candidates. In the process, their preferred, if not chosen, candidates almost always won Democrat primaries.
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That power is nearly gone.
Today, we live in the Age of the Super PAC, which, in any given race, can wield power that overpowers a major party.
Starting in 2010, one outcome of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC, was that a PAC could raise and spend unlimited funds to support a candidate provided it does not coordinate with the candidate it supported.
As the former chairman of the California Republican Party, I can tell you that before Citizens United, the political parties were the super PACs. No more.
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Evidence of that is everywhere.
For instance, "Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of the late hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons (d. 2024) who shares a $32.5 billion fortune with her stepmother Marilyn and two siblings… cut a check for $250,000 to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, the main independent group," which branded itself as the "official support PAC to elect Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City."
Overall, New Yorkers for Lower Costs reported nearly $2 million in donations, which it spent in support of Mamdani. It is doubtful he could have won without it.
Just as importantly, Mamdani, a member of the DSA, was free to enter the race for mayor of New York as a Democrat. There is no law preventing that. The truly socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has run as a Democrat for years.
Beyond that, consider the Democrat National Committee today. It is not the center of political fundraising for Democrats today. The party is broke, but the Democrats are not overly concerned. Instead, they will rely on super PACs to fight the midterms.
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That dynamic did not exist to any significant degree before 2010. Nor is it likely to end any time soon.
Call it the age of the Age of the Super PAC, and right now, the DSA is making the most of it, much to endanger the longest reigning major political party in American history, the Democrats.