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This past weekend I attended my first DSA meeting, held in a cavernous church basement that was littered with dozens of “F-ck ICE!” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA” picket signs. The meeting was for people who were interested in joining the DSA; Called “DSA 101”, it was an introductory course led by a public school teacher. In the fifteen minutes between my arrival and the event’s start time, about twenty-five white people trickled into the room.
The instructor started the class by lamenting the recent loss of DSA gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong. Almost everyone in the room had Hong buttons pinned to their bags or shirts. One woman was using a soda coozie with a Hong quote printed on it: “If you need me I’ll be balls deep in bourbon.” The instructor blamed Hong’s loss on the consolidation of the Democrat party around the “centrist, moderate” David Crowley and his annoyance with current Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ endorsement of Crowley. He then read a quote from a German Marxist, Bertolt Brecht: “The persecutors are wicked simply because they persecute. The persecuted suffer because of their goodness.”
The leader then began outlining the differences between socialism and capitalism, placing particular emphasis on the working class. The group instructor, who also claims to run and edit a local socialist magazine, asked the group to define the working class. The next few minutes produced a brief discussion on who was included in the working class: Workers, but not business owners (Who were, of course, stealing labor). Wage earners, but not the police. Children, but also not children. All people, but not everybody, because as one ambiguously gendered individual stated, “We have to keep in mind that anyone could become disabled at any point.” Everyone enthusiastically nodded in agreement. “Workers Deserve More” was the three-word summary used to explain the difference between capitalism and socialism.
“I just think that socialists have an amazing opportunity to really take advantage of our current moment…”
Said the 30-something year old woman sitting next to me at the DSA meeting. Everyone else at the table, including three other millennial women and two gentlemen who were late-Gen Xers, nodded in agreement. “Now more than ever, people need what socialism has to offer.”
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The instructor walked the group through some of the DSA’s core principles: Expanded public resources, health care for all (Including gender affirming care and access to abortion), housing for all, finishing reconstruction by ending white supremacy, ending mass incarceration, and abolishing the police, whom were described as “An unaccountable, racist, oppressive institution.” Feminism was also described as a core tenant of the DSA, describing women as constituting a majority of the working class, and stating that all forms of housework were oppressive. Springing from this was a call to “End patriarchal domination and give full equality for women and gender non-conforming people, and absolute support for trans rights.” Finally, he mentioned the Green New Deal. During a small group discussion where we were asked to say which of these social causes we were most passionate about, the majority of women in my circle noted their particular passion for “climate justice.” A young man wearing a pride tank top walking by overheard this and chimed in, “Soooooo true, Comrade!”
The instructor then explained how socialism is an inherently international movement. He criticized the “American military industrial complex,” mentioned the need to free Palestine, demanded that Israeli leaders be “prosecuted for genocide,” and bemoaned that America had punished Cuba with sanctions as “punishment” for being a communist country.
The last major point he hit on, of course, was abolishing ICE. At the very mention of ICE, attendees started booing and yelling “F-ck them!”, while the public school teacher at the front of the room smiled and laughed. “I don’t care to live in a state where people can be abused and murdered by Stephen Miller’s lunatic Gestapo,” He said, before going on to explain that “ICE is a tool of American imperialism, racism, and violence… It is built to oppress, terrorize, and murder people. Socialism is not a fan of immigration enforcement writ large.” He blamed all immigration issues on American imperialism.
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Around the end of the session, the instructor said the quiet part out loud: “[ICE] is not something that has existed since the constitution, although the constitution is not that great in my opinion.” He laughed the comment off and mumbled something along the lines of “Don’t tell my job that I said that.” The other attendees cried out in agreement, barking about how it was “Old” and a “Living document.”
Walking away from the event, I realized that the general consensus among everyone involved was that they thought of themselves as victims. The instructor encouraged the idea that all of their problems were caused by the capitalist ruling class. Their individual problems would be solved by handing over their autonomy to the state. The DSA is not simply coalescing around empathy, but around a seething hatred for others. The socialists cosplaying as “social justice warriors” are gravitating to a much more dangerous philosophy: Jealousy.
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This article struck a nerve with me because I came to America from communist Vietnam with my mother and older brother. We had very little, but we never believed the government owed us a life.
We ate instant noodles, eggs, and sardines. My mother worked, sacrificed, and eventually built her own restaurants. That was not oppression. That was the American Dream taking shape through responsibility, opportunity, and determination.
Capitalism is not perfect because people are not perfect. But it allows people to create, own, build, fail, recover, and try again. Socialism promises equality by transferring more power to the state, but history repeatedly shows that the people rarely receive equal power. They receive equal dependence.
I believe in helping people who genuinely need help. I also believe that compassion without accountability can become dependency, and convincing people that they are powerless is one of the cruelest things anyone can do to them.
The most troubling part of this article is not disagreement over policy. It is a philosophy that appears to require enemies. Business owners, police officers, immigration agents, successful people, and anyone who questions the movement are treated as oppressors.
You cannot build a better society on resentment. Jealousy does not create prosperity. Anger does not produce opportunity. Destroying what someone else built will never teach you how to build something of your own.
America gave my family the freedom to work toward a better life. I will never apologize for believing that freedom, personal responsibility, and capitalism remain worth defending.
It is remarkable that you were able to stay there through the meeting at all.