The Democratic Party has a socialism problem, or rather, a disaffected young voter problem. Several self-avowed socialist candidates have won contentious Democratic primary races in the past few months, many of them backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
The DSA surpassed 100,000 members in January, up from just 6,000 in 2015. The group’s radical policy wishlist includes socialized healthcare, nationwide rent control, nationalizing industry, and dismantling the presidency, Senate, and Supreme Court. Candidates must agree to this platform before receiving DSA endorsement.
This summer, DSA-endorsed congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier advanced in New York. DSA member Christopher Rabb secured a congressional seat in Pennsylvania, and in Michigan, DSA ally Abdul El-Sayed beat out Rep. Haley Stevens in the Senate primary.
The DSA’s supporters are young, fun, and socialist. They party with the candidates and fangirl over the far-left e-celebrities who swoop in to campaign. They lean into sex appeal and discourse that would horrify their elders. They’re on a mission to normalize the ideas of socialism throughout the U.S., and it’s working.
Sixty-two percent of young people now view socialism favorably, according to a Cato Institute survey, which also found that a third of young people hold similarly favorable views of communism.
Earlier generations may be confused by these statistics. Has the American education system failed to impart the horrors of 20th-century socialism? Are America’s youth ignorant of the Venezuelan and Cuban refugees who fled to our shores?
There are three theories to explain why young people are drawn to socialism. Each has merits, and together they create a more complete picture.
Photo by Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto
Young Americans are poor (or feel poor).
Gen Z’s nihilistic view of their economic future is going unaddressed by Republicans or mainstream Democrats, and Democratic socialists are filling the void. They give young people a convenient enemy — the rich — and prey upon generational inequalities to bolster their argument.
From the hotly debated $20 burrito to skyrocketing student loan debt, young Americans are feeling the post-COVID economic burn. Some quickly write off Gen Z’s economic woes as entitlement, but there is a more sympathetic story.
American voters and politicians have long pursued a policy of “soft socialism” — the subsidization of demand, restriction of supply, and ever-encroaching power of government into American economic life – all done with the expressed aim of easing financial burdens.
In 2023, Mark Perry at the American Enterprise Institute released the Chart of the Century. It revealed the disorienting financial world Gen Z has inherited.
While consumer technology (TVs, phones, laptops) has become more affordable, healthcare, college, and housing have skyrocketed in cost relative to inflation and wages. Between 2000 and 2022, the price of hospital services climbed 220%, college tuition jumped 178%, and the cost of housing grew 80%. These stress points are reflected in the DSA platform, which urges Americans to imagine a day where “you have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right.”
Education, health, and home are core tenets of the American dream, which promised that you could achieve all of this through hard work. Republicans, and even some mainstream Democrats, still come back to this message.
Socialists have one thing right: In a way, something has been stolen from Gen Z. But instead of business owners and landlords stealing from workers, the past stole from the present. COVID-era monetary policy, for example, saw $4.7 trillion allocated to relief spending and $13 trillion dollars printed to ease our momentary woes. In layman’s terms, our money is worth significantly less than before the pandemic. Gen Z is working hard but seeing a lot less return.
Photo by Zack Zhang/Xinhua via Getty Images
Gen Z has been sold a false image of socialism.
Young DSA members are not strict readers of Karl Marx. They just want healthcare, they’ll tell you. They think it’s wrong for poor people to suffer. They want equality, comfort, and community.
They’ll point to studies showing how the rich accumulate wealth more quickly than other Americans, ignoring growth in other income brackets. They’ll bemoan the “hollowing out of the American middle class,” not realizing the middle class has shrunk because the upper middle class has grown.
Capitalist wealth creation is the tide that lifts all boats. But for young socialists, capitalism is the root of all our social and economic woes, including the loneliness epidemic. They argue that individualism begets isolation and the financial pressures of capitalism lead to less time for leisure, even though we spend far less time working than we did over a century ago.
When asked to give the elevator pitch for socialism, a DSA activist said, “Are you tired of sitting alone and being by yourself and having no one to talk to? Be a socialist. It’s all about community.”
This pitch feels more like a cult recruitment tactic than a thoughtful introduction to political philosophy. Ending capitalism will not cure Gen Z’s personal or financial woes, but the DSA offers a sense of community that makes its platform feel palatable.
Photo by Amy Sussman/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Socialism is sexy.
Democratic socialist candidates are young, stylish, and charismatic. Zohran Mamdani energetically floats around New York City, always greeting constituents with a suit, tie, and wide smile. His underemployed wife wears cool-girl designers and outfits that confuse the rest of the country. He treats New Yorkers with respect, releases viral videos every week, and even ended his campaign by club hopping throughout the city.
Other socialist candidates are similarly tapped into millennial and Gen Z culture. Abdul El-Sayed is a podcast bro. Claire Valdez also hit clubs on campaign stops. And Darializa Avila Chevalier is being prematurely crowned as one of the most stylish members of Congress.
Meanwhile, the socialist masses don Hot Girls for Zohran t-shirts, fawn over e-celebs like Hasan Piker, and mock Republican women for having MAGA makeup and “Mar-a-Lago face.” They’re like a socialist Regina George.
In a way, socialism has become a fashion trend in itself, with the implicit message to outsiders being: You are an ugly loser if you don’t get on board. This is a compelling, albeit subconscious, selling point for young people searching for belonging.
Whether or not socialism is a flash-in-the-pan trend or a lasting ideology depends on how quickly its loudest defenders can shift the Overton window while they still have the microphone. If we want any chance to defeat this destructive movement, we have to update our understanding of the political, social, and economic landscape in which Gen Z finds itself.
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Maggie Anders is a video journalist and political commentator. Her work explores international political movements, history, pop culture, economics, the cost-of-living crisis, and Gen Z social issues.
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