Leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are concentrating their efforts on getting another radical leftist elected — this time in Michigan for the U.S. Senate. 
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are scheduled to host rallies across Michigan for leftist Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed on July 18 and 19. El-Sayed is in the middle of what&#8217;s expected to be a close race for the party&#8217;s nomination against Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens.
El-Sayed is running his campaign much like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, with a heavy social media presence and large appeal among Muslims and young leftists. 
For the Fourth of July, he made a music video in which he danced to a Taylor Swift song on the pop star&#8217;s wedding weekend. &#8220;Happy Taylor wedding…err, July 4th weekend!&#8221; El-Sayed wrote in the caption above the video.
In another video, he took the song &#8220;I want to dance with somebody” and changed the lyrics to “I want to vote for somebody” while listing out his attributes. Stevens called out El-Sayed for his posts, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/us/politics/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-debate.html">arguing</a> that he’s more focused on his own publicity than the people of Michigan. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Happy Taylor wedding…err, July 4th weekend! <a href="https://t.co/1s1blnoY4P">pic.twitter.com/1s1blnoY4P</a>
— Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2073429685870968917?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
El-Sayed portrays himself as a physician despite <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/12/abdul-el-sayed-doctor-physician-00916389">not</a> being granted a medical license. Like democratic socialist candidates who have recently won Democratic primaries, El-Sayed is defending past radical statements he has made. 
In a 2020 radio interview, El-Sayed <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/abdul-el-sayed-repeatedly-called-210836248.html">said</a>, “We are in a moment where a lot of our public conversation gets chewed down into 280 characters or less … I believe that we do need to defund the police in so far as defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets.&#8221;
El-Sayed is currently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/politics/kfile-abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate-defund-police-fact-check">defending</a> his remarks by saying he never called to defund the police. One year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, El-Sayed supported another lockdown in April 2021. He suggested businesses should be fined for trying to open their doors in the midst of the public health crisis.
His anti-Israel stance also sparked controversy last October when El-Sayed’s campaign sent a fundraising email on the anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel that made no mention of Hamas’ atrocities and blamed Israel for launching “a ground invasion of Gaza.” El-Sayed&#8217;s campaign later said the email was sent by mistake, but the leftist stood by the message in the email.
During his Senate campaign, he has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/im-not-a-socialist-michigans-mamdani-has-the-lefts-new-playbook-but-doesnt-want-the-new-label">called</a> for ICE to be abolished, while doubling down on his push for Medicare for all and tuition-free access to higher education. The Michigan primary is on August 4. 
Democratic-socialists have been on a recent tear, ousting decade-long Democratic incumbents in the primaries. In June, Democratic socialist Melat Kiros upset incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) in the primary for Colorado’s 1st congressional district. DeGette has served in Congress for longer than Kiros has been alive. 
In New York, three Mamdani-backed candidates swept their races. One of the candidates, Darializa Avila Chevalier, defeated incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat despite past anti-American social media posts such as “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
A Fourth of July poll from the Cato Institute revealed that socialism is on the rise, as 53% of Gen Z and 40% of Millennials have a favorable view of socialism and are taking their new ideals to the voting booth.

AOC and Bernie Sanders

Bernie And AOC Focus On Pushing Radical Leftist In Vital Swing State

2026 Midterms

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bernie Sanders

Democrats

Michigan

Senate

Socialism

President Donald Trump said on Monday that newly launched Trump Accounts could be the remedy to a growing infatuation with communist ideals in America because they will teach children to have an &#8220;entrepreneurial&#8221; spirit.
Trump made the argument during an Oval Office event focused on the rollout of Trump Accounts, which funds qualifying investment accounts for American children with $1,000 from the Treasury. Trump Accounts officially launched on the Fourth of July.
“I think we’ve done a lot of great things but I think this will be one of the top. It’s going to teach children to be entrepreneurial as opposed to the threat of communism that you&#8217;re seeing. This is not social Democrats, by the way. They&#8217;re not social Democrats. They&#8217;re communists. They want to destroy our country — we&#8217;re not going to let that happen,” he said. 
He explained the accounts won’t only help the future generation, but also their parents. “But this helps even from the parent standpoint. They see their child getting richer and richer as the market goes up. &#8230; The parents are going to be watching, we are all going to be watching. We are part of a very big and very beautiful game. It’s going to bring them into the mainstream.&#8221;
A new poll from the Cato Institute revealed 53% of Gen Z, ages 18 to 29, have a favorable view of socialism, and 38% have a favorable view of communism. Forty percent of Millennials, ages 30 to 44, have a favorable view of socialism, and 29% have a favorable view of communism. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1129025" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-06-at-12.24.28-PM.png" alt="" width="1496" height="1000" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-06-at-12.24.28-PM.png 1496w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-06-at-12.24.28-PM-300x201.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-06-at-12.24.28-PM-862x576.png 862w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/Screenshot-2026-07-06-at-12.24.28-PM-768x513.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1496px) 100vw, 1496px" /></div>
&nbsp;
Trump Accounts bring those who are on the sidelines into the market by giving them a piece of ownership in equities. In America today, the top 1% of wealthiest Americans own about 50% of all equities while the bottom half of Americans own about 1% of U.S. equities. 
Through compound investing, this ownership gap only increases the wealth gap as those without ownership miss out on one of the primary drivers of long-term wealth creation. This dynamic can fuel support for socialist and communist ideals as asset owners are often better protected from inflation through appreciating investments, while those without assets only see their wages struggle to keep pace with rising prices.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also believes Trump Accounts directly combat young people&#8217;s growing fascination with socialism.
“Trump Accounts represent the triumph of capitalism over socialism. Through Trump Accounts, our president is creating an ownership economy where all citizens become shareholders in America’s wealth,&#8221; said Bessent. 
Based on White House estimates, a child born in 2026 may accumulate roughly $5,800 in the account by age 18 without any additional deposits. If parents and employers consistently contribute the $5,000 annual maximum contribution, the total could rise to approximately $303,800 over that same period. 
The $1,000 seed investment from the Treasury Department will be allocated across a broad mix of low-cost index funds, balancing growth potential with risk management. The seed investment was funded through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” with the opportunity to expand eligibility for children born after 2029. 
While children born between 2025 and 2028 are the only ones available for the $1,000 deposit from the federal government, parents can still set up Trump Accounts for older children. Philanthropists are also using the investment vehicles to donate money directly to a cause. On Monday, President and COO of SpaceX Gwynne Shotwell <a href="https://x.com/Gwynne_Shotwell/status/2074064376810614926">gifted</a> two million children ages 11-17 who live in areas with lower average household incomes a share of her SpaceX stock.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Why The President Believes Trump Accounts Will Push Back On The Communist Threat

Communism

Donald Trump

Trump Accounts

There isn&#8217;t a breeze in sight. The air is stuffy, muggy, thick enough to chew. Lady Liberty still looks beautiful with the sun on her copper facade, and I won&#8217;t complain about a sunny day, no matter how hot it gets. But today there&#8217;s something heavier than the humidity hanging over the city. For some New Yorkers, there&#8217;s a looming, crushing sense of guilt, stickier than the air itself.
Because they haven&#8217;t turned their AC up to 78 degrees.
Why would anyone willingly suffer through a muggy apartment when they could enjoy the start of Fourth of July weekend in a crisp 68-degree living room? Because the socialist, terror-sympathizing, former-failed-rapper mayor of New York City told them not to. For the good of the very warm collective.
&#8220;Set your AC to 78 degrees,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2072411003170472359">says</a>. Because &#8220;a stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved,&#8221; he says. Translation: sweat now, comrade, so YOU [insert Sophia Cunningham pointing meme] don’t overheat the cooling system and kill grandma.
That&#8217;s eerily reminiscent of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mocking-france-makes-america-cooler">French health officials last week</a>, instructing the elderly and sick to essentially stick their heads in ice buckets and sip cold soup rather than run an air conditioner. I made fun of France for sounding like the third world. I didn&#8217;t expect the third world to make it to New York City this fast.
It&#8217;s the same degrowth logic wearing a different accent. Paris told its sick and elderly to suffer through the heat for the sake of the planet. Mamdani is telling everyone else to suffer through it for the sake of the grid. Different continent, same underlying belief: your comfort is negotiable, and someone else always gets to decide the terms. Today it&#8217;s your thermostat. Tomorrow it&#8217;s your grocery cart, your car, your lightbulbs. The mask doesn&#8217;t come off all at once. It slips one degree at a time.
Last week,<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-lasted-nine-days-without-ac-europeans-dont-have-a-choice"> I went nine days without AC</a>. It hovered between 78 and 80 degrees, and it was unbearable. Now the mayor of a city of eight million residents is scolding those same residents into voluntary suffering and harm, fresh off a campaign that promised prosperity, rainbows, and abundance for all. Nothing to see here, folks. Just a full-fledged Islamic socialist chipping away at the freedoms and comforts we hold dear, one thermostat at a time.
Utopia was supposed to be air-conditioned.
Mamdani blames the power grid, apparently so fragile that if all eight million New Yorkers don&#8217;t sweat through their Alo yoga pants and Wall Street suits in togethership, the whole system goes dark.
And what made the grid so fragile in the first place? Horrendous Democrat energy policy, three decades in the making. New York banned hydraulic fracking despite sitting on massive Marcellus Shale reserves, in the name of eliminating gas use. It didn&#8217;t eliminate anything. It just made the state import the energy it refuses to drill for itself. Environmentalists celebrated the closure of <a href="https://x.com/isabelleboemeke/status/2072662692721312036/photo/1">Indian Point</a>, a nuclear plant that once supplied roughly 25% of New York City&#8217;s electricity. The grid never recovered. Then came the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, mandating 70% renewable energy by 2030 and leaning on unreliable sources like solar and wind. Less efficient. More expensive. Exactly the recipe for a grid that buckles the moment July shows up.
Naturally, the socialist mayor isn&#8217;t offering practical fixes like drilling, fracking, coal, or nuclear power. That would be radical. Instead, he&#8217;s threatening you with thermostat mandates and <a href="https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2072733749263901182">doubling down</a> even when his proletariat complains.
A commenter <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaTUv2wJ5Ur/?hl=en">on my recent video mocking Mamdani </a>for this wisecracked that Texas has also asked residents to set their AC to 78 during extreme heat waves. Sure. But Texas asks because it regularly hits triple-digit heat that sends demand through the roof, even with a grid that actually builds power plants and lets markets work. Mamdani is asking because years of green policy, championed by his side, shuttered reliable nuclear capacity and choked off gas, leaving the grid with paper-thin margins. Now ordinary New Yorkers get to roast while the system he inherited, and never intends to fix, tries to catch up.
Mamdani handed us this layup himself the moment he <a href="https://x.com/JoshWalkos/status/2006914140636590553">swore</a> to strip away your individuality in exchange for warm, collective security. That cozy collectivism now looks like a forced, hellish scarcity. The cozy collectivism he promised now looks a lot like forced, hellish scarcity. That&#8217;s the trick with socialism. It&#8217;s always sold as a group hug and delivered as a group sweat.
You can&#8217;t say every wise soul in history didn&#8217;t warn you.
&#8220;Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy,&#8221; said Winston Churchill.
That quote could be on a welcome mat outside Mamdani&#8217;s front door. A door I&#8217;d bet good money leads to a home that isn&#8217;t sitting at 78 degrees.

You’re Hot, Stay Cool sign with AC unit and fan posted to street light during heatwave on 86th Street, Manhattan, New York

Set Your AC To 78 – For The Collective, Comrade

Air conditioning

DW Opinion

Zohran Mamdani

Far-Left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told New York City residents and business owners to take on the heat wave in the name of collectivism, urging them to keep their thermostats set to a toasty 78 degrees.
&#8220;New York: it&#8217;s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool. Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you&#8217;re not using, and unplug what you can,&#8221; Mamdani told residents.
The high temp on Wednesday was 91 degrees, which can feel even hotter in the city. Temperatures are expected to hit around 100 degrees for the rest of the week.
&#8220;Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings, dimming/turning off our lights during peak electricity demand, asking private partners to do the same, and powering down non-essential equipment,&#8221; the mayor added. &#8220;A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let&#8217;s ease demand — and get through the heat — together.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
New York: it&#8217;s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool.
Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you&#8217;re not using, and unplug what you can.
Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings,…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) <a href="https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2072411003170472359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
He also instructed business owners to keep the thermostat at 78 degrees.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Mayor Mamdani: &#8220;Set you thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate the stress on our grid&#8221;
The warmth of collectivism <a href="https://t.co/VQjrvBPVqY">pic.twitter.com/VQjrvBPVqY</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/2072447850298880333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
Mamdani, who has spoken about the &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-warmth-of-collectivism-a-month-into-mamdani-nyc-is-covered-in-massive-piles-of-trash">warmth of collectivism</a>&#8221; and embraces <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-coldest-rent-control-gimmick-yet">socialist policies</a>, was quickly roasted online for the request to residents.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis <a href="https://x.com/RonDeSantis/status/2072456275019927883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">joked</a>, &#8220;Is this what was meant by the warmth of collectivism?&#8221;
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt <a href="https://x.com/spencerpratt/status/2072455711288959261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">asked</a> Mamdani, whom he referred to as a &#8220;commie,&#8221; to show his thermostat. He added in a follow-up tweet, &#8220;Communism always goes the same way. They smile &amp; promise you the world. Free this, free that, abundance for all! How? Don&#8217;t ask!&#8221; Pratt wrote. &#8220;Then they get into power, and the rationing begins. First a smiley ask. Then a demand. Then a bullet. &#8216;You used too much energy, comrade.&#8221;
&#8220;I have texted all my coworkers who voted for Zohran to send me a photo of their A/C set to 78,&#8221; Barstool&#8217;s Jack McGuire <a href="https://x.com/JackMac/status/2072437369270124663?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">said</a>.
&#8220;This is the stark scarcity of socialism,&#8221; New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik <a href="https://x.com/EliseStefanik/status/2072439834149523537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">commented</a>. &#8220;New York is a state of extraordinary abundance in energy, power, and natural resources. Yet it is only because of the failed policies crushing our state’s energy independence that we have to settle for this Third World scarcity.&#8221;
&#8220;The Communists really mean it when they say &#8216;replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,'&#8221; she added. &#8220;AMERICA IS THE LAND OF THE FREE, THE HOME OF THE BRAVE, AND THE INVENTORS OF AC (in Brooklyn, no less)!!!!&#8221;
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy <a href="https://x.com/stoolpresidente/status/2072431020436083067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">posted</a>, &#8220;78 degrees??? Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-coldest-rent-control-gimmick-yet">Mamdani’s Coldest Rent Control Gimmick Yet</a>

GettyImages-2283268860

‘Welcome To Communism!’: Mamdani Roasted For Heat Wave Instructions For New Yorkers

‘Welcome To Communism!’: Mamdani Roasted For Heatwave Instructions For New Yorkers

Heat wave

New York City

The Democratic socialist darling poised to represent New York&#8217;s 13th Congressional District reportedly had a since-deleted Twitter account that read like communist fan fiction.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, according to a new report from CNN, kept a Twitter account under the name &#8220;Darializabonet.&#8221; The bio under the name in 2020 read, &#8220;how communist of you,&#8221; and the entire account was apparently deleted in 2022.
The contents of the now-deleted account included complaints about the lack of available Marxist literature — particularly works by revolutionaries like Vladimir Lenin — and a recommendation that Karl Marx&#8217;s &#8220;Capital&#8221; was a &#8220;must-read.&#8221; She also retweeted a post from another communist account complaining that bookstores did not feature &#8220;The Complete Works of J. V. Stalin&#8221; in displays about books that had been &#8220;banned.&#8221;
The account also quoted convicted cop killer and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur, who escaped from prison and fled to Cuba to avoid a life sentence, on the idea that people should read communist revolutionaries of color — &#8220;Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Che, or Fidel [Castro]&#8221; — before Lenin or Marx. The revolutionaries could not be ignored, she said, because of their contributions to the cause — but she disliked elevating them above their non-white counterparts.
Other posts she either commented on or retweeted shared similarly favorable views of communism and socialism — including one retweet of a post complaining that Americans objected to communism over seemingly trivial things like the number of available soup varieties at a grocery store.
&#8220;I just cannot get over the fact that the universe has foisted upon us the perfect illustration of literally every failing of capitalism and people are still like we can’t be communists cuz there won’t be enough types of soup,&#8221; the post she retweeted read.
Avila Chevalier, backed by New York City&#8217;s new Democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, defeated incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat to win the Democratic primary — and because she&#8217;s unlikely to face any real challenge from Republicans, Avila Chevalier&#8217;s victory in November is all but certain.
Comedian and HBO host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-maher-is-not-down-with-the-jew-hating-socialists-my-vote-is-in-play">Bill Maher</a> sounded the alarm on Avila Chevalier before additional details from the account came to light, saying during his Friday broadcast that she was &#8220;patient zero&#8221; if the &#8220;Woke Mind Virus&#8221; had such a thing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bill Maher on Democratic Socialist Daraliza Avila Chevalier:
“There is a woke mind virus and I think we found patient zero” <a href="https://t.co/YkaK2Mozqv">pic.twitter.com/YkaK2Mozqv</a>
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) <a href="https://x.com/DSA_Watch/status/2071261107050934589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There’s one candidate, she will be a congresswoman from New York’s 13th District, who the New York Times asked her if someone murders someone randomly, should they go to jail? Couldn’t get her to say yes to that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She says, ‘No more police ever, at all, ever.’ She says our veterans are war criminals. She said f*ck Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s a rapist. So there is a Woke Mind Virus, and I think we found patient zero.&#8221;

NYC Mayor Mamdani Holds Get Out The Vote Rally Ahead Of Primary Election

Mamdani Darling Had Burner Account Flooded With Communist Fan Fiction

Darializa Avila Chevalier

Democratic Socialism

Former West Virginia Democrat-turned-independent Senator Joe Manchin didn&#8217;t mince words during a fiery Fox News interview with Brian Kilmeade, unloading on the Democratic Party for its drift toward socialism — and making crystal clear why he wants nothing to do with them anymore.
&#8220;That is absolutely insane,&#8221; the ex-senator exploded when Kilmeade dropped a bombshell statistic: nearly two-thirds of self-identified Democrats now prefer socialism over capitalism. &#8220;That&#8217;s crazy. That is crazy.&#8221; He repeated it like a man who couldn&#8217;t believe what he was hearing.
And then came the kicker: &#8220;I can&#8217;t put up with that crazy sh*t. That&#8217;s nuts.&#8221;
Manchin, who spent 15 years representing deeply conservative West Virginia — first as governor from 2005 to 2010, then as a U.S. senator through 2025 — knows a thing or two about what working Americans actually want.
The blunt-talking West Virginian <a href="https://wvmetronews.com/2024/05/31/manchin-a-lifelong-democrat-announces-registration-today-as-an-independent/#:~:text=It's%20who%20I%20am.,extremism%20while%20jeopardizing%20our%20democracy.">ditched</a> his Democratic registration in 2024, declaring himself an independent, and his Fox News tirade left no doubt as to why. He pointed the finger squarely at the party&#8217;s obsession with government dependency, arguing that Democrats have completely abandoned the working men and women who once formed their backbone.
He recalled a telling exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who asked him why West Virginia&#8217;s union workers had abandoned the party. His answer was brutal in its simplicity: Democrats in Washington, he said, now pour more time, money, and energy into able-bodied people who refuse to work than into the struggling laborers still punching the clock every day.
&#8220;That&#8217;s it in a nutshell,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t give it to you any plainer than that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Reporter: Sixty-two percent of Democrats say they prefer socialism over capitalism.
Joe Manchin: If they do, there isn’t a Democratic Party left. I can’t put up with that crazy shit. That’s nuts! <a href="https://t.co/Xh1VAUcZfN">pic.twitter.com/Xh1VAUcZfN</a>
&mdash; DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) <a href="https://x.com/DSA_Watch/status/2071564386200920289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It&#8217;s a remarkable journey for a man who spent decades as a Democrat. Manchin was never a reliable liberal — he voted with President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/04/bidens-inaccurate-jab-manchins-sinemas-voting-records/">more than half the time</a> during his presidency, supported several of his cabinet picks and two of his Supreme Court nominees — but his formal break from the party signals something deeper than political calculation.
One thing&#8217;s for sure: Joe Manchin is done playing nice with a party he thinks has gone off the deep end.
And he&#8217;s more than happy to say so on national television.

Joe Manchin

‘Crazy Sh*t’: Former Dem Senator Delivers Blistering Tirade At Party’s Socialist Drift

More than 1,400 people have died since an earthquake ravaged Venezuela earlier this week, and I blame socialism.
I know ideology can’t shift tectonic plates. But it can leave a society unprepared to face disaster and render a people unable to pick up its pieces.
Things were bad before the first road cracked or buildings fell. The numbers were a catastrophe before the first building fell. According to the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166707" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Nations,</a> nearly eight million Venezuelans — about one in four citizens — required humanitarian assistance. That level of need for a country sitting atop one of the Earth’s largest oil reserves is something only central planning can create.
The economist Friedrich Hayek said the problem with central planning is that the knowledge on which a society runs is not held in any single mind or ministry. It’s scattered across millions of people, each aware of some small fact — what is needed, where, and how badly — that no central authority could ever gather in one room.
In free societies like ours, market prices ensure that knowledge is spread out and accessible in times of need. A command economy throws that mechanism away and tries to do the calculating from a single desk. This system fails even in calm times, as Venezuela’s bread lines, empty shelves, and hyperinflation have long proved.
After a disaster, those failures turn lethal. A government that cannot keep a pharmacy stocked in peacetime will not conjure a rescue operation out of the rubble.
Imagine a man in La Guaira — let’s call him Carlos — who woke up to find his house shaking. Half asleep he rushes outside, and as he stands in the dust he realizes his wife and baby daughters were still inside. From inside the rubble of what was once his home, Carlos hears their call. His family survived. They need to be rescued.
Carlos calls the government’s emergency number, but no one answers. No one comes. There are no trucks, no spreaders, no floodlights, no crew of strangers trained for exactly this. Just a father digging at concrete with his bare hands while the sounds underneath him got quieter and then stopped.
His daughters did not die in the earthquake. They died in the hours after it, in the moments where people in a functioning country would have access to rescue crews and emergency lines: ordinary, unglamorous competence. Carlos’s family died because for 20 years the governments of Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro hollowed out the country in the name of socialism.
In the United States, the consent of the governed enables the government to serve its people, not oppress them. In Venezuela, things have been inverted for a long time, as the earthquake laid bare.
The same security forces that spared no expense breaking up pro-democracy protests have, in the days since the ground shook, mostly stayed out of the rubble. Reporters in La Guaira watched state workers pose for photographs in front of collapsed buildings and then leave without lifting a stone, while their neighbors dug with motorcycle helmets for hard hats and bare hands for tools.
On the night of June 26, the government sealed off the hardest-hit areas and demanded special permits to enter — even as families clawed at concrete crushing the people they loved. Officials said the roads had to be cleared for ambulances to get through. But according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/world/americas/venezuela-earthquake-shortages-doctors.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>, there were just three functioning ambulances in the entire capital city.
I lived the first 16 years of my life in Venezuela. I was old enough to understand exactly what I was leaving behind, and young enough to get a chance to start again in a country that works.
Most people only ever live one of those lives. They either grow up inside the failure and never escape it, or they grow up inside the safety and never think to question it. I ended up with both, and the gap between them is not an abstraction to me.
That’s why I was aghast when, two days before the earthquakes in Venezuela, my adopted country handed a string of victories to candidates who ran, proudly, under the banner of socialism. Democratic socialism, they’re careful to say — and they’re right that the word matters. New York is not Caracas. Mamdani is not Maduro.
But enthusiasm for these candidates runs hottest among people who, like most Americans my age, have never once seen the bill come due. I don’t blame them. It’s easy to like the idea of the city running the grocery store when you’ve never lived somewhere the state couldn’t keep one stocked. It’s easy to trust the single desk with more and more of daily life when you’ve never heard the silence on the other end of an emergency line.
This earthquake didn’t break Venezuela. It revealed a country that was already broken, and stripped away the last of the cover that had been hiding the damage. The tragedy isn’t just that the plates shifted. The tragedy is that they shifted under a people whose government made sure they’d have nothing left to land on.
***
Olga Benacerraf de Strulovic is a J.D. Candidate at the University of Chicago Law School. She was born and raised in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas, and was one of many Venezuelans who fled the country during Nicolás Maduro’s rule.

VENEZUELA-EARTHQUAKE-AID

An Earthquake Shook Venezuela, But Socialism Broke It

Earthquakes

Venezuela

New York City&#8217;s Democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushed ahead with his promised rent freeze on Thursday — but that could just be the setup for a far more dramatic move.
Mamdani&#8217;s new rent freeze could be setting landlords up to fail — and creating a stash of new &#8220;city&#8221; properties on which to build. In May, Mamdani alluded to resurrecting the controversial Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, which would allow the city to effectively confiscate private property under certain conditions.
“For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards.” If apartments are seized, Mamdani said they could be transferred to community land trusts, non-profits, or “even the tenants themselves.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
NOW: Mamdani says his admin will transfer ownership from bad landlords to non-profits.
“For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards.
Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants… <a href="https://t.co/YHhzGWPgWh">pic.twitter.com/YHhzGWPgWh</a>
— Brecca Stoll (@breccastoll) <a href="https://x.com/breccastoll/status/2059289647688106237?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
Under New York City’s controversial TPT program, the city can foreclose on buildings whose owners owe back property taxes, water charges, or have violated New York City’s housing code. 
The TPT program was paused in 2019 after backlash from property-rights advocates and elected officials, but the New York City Council is currently considering legislation that could <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/09/third-party-transfer-reform-city-council-landlords-property/">restart</a> the program. In addition to rent freezes, Mamdani promised to &#8220;crack down&#8221; on landlords who were not managing maintenance requests or had other tenant complaints.
“Expense items are not proportional to the income the properties generate,” landlord Lav Bauta told the New York Post. Bauta&#8217;s firm, Zion Equities, owns about 800 New York City rent-stabilized units and manages 4,000 apartments. “Rent-stabilized properties incur the same, or greater, expenses as their fair-market counterparts: insurance, wages, supplies, elevator service, utilities, etc. There is no support or control mechanism to cap expenses while incomes have been capped.”
Former Mayor Eric Adams <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2025/06/mayor-adams-on-rent-guidelines-board-final-vote">acknowledged</a> these concerns during his tenure. “What we will never do is sell New Yorkers on an idea that would ultimately leave them in worsening housing conditions,” Adams said as mayor. “Rent may be on the rise, but so are deteriorating housing conditions — including inadequate heat and heating breakdowns, mice and rat problems, mold, and leaks — especially for New Yorkers in rent-stabilized housing.”
Worsening housing conditions are expected to emerge as landlords incur higher costs due to inflation. Mamdani&#8217;s rent freeze was voted into effect on Thursday after the Rent Guidelines Board approved rent freezes for both one and two-year apartment leases. The board approved the measure in a 7-1 vote affecting all rent-stabilized apartments. About one million apartments are affected out of New York’s <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/content/tenantprotection/pages/fast-facts-about-housing-in-nyc">2.32</a> million renter-occupied apartments.
“It may be hot outside, but the rent is freezing,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “This is a historic victory for New York City tenants. I’ll continue working to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance and ensuring tenants know their rights.” 
Before Mamdani’s 0% rent increase, landlords were able to raise rent by <a href="https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03296">3%</a> for one-year lease renewals and <a href="https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-03296">4.5%</a> for two-year leases. Mamdani appointed a majority of the Rent Guidelines Board, which sets the annual rent adjustments for rent-stabilized apartments. Mamdani had previously <a href="https://time.com/7299525/zohran-mamdani-new-york-city-housing-crisis-plan/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said</a> he would only appoint members to the board if they agreed with his “freeze the rent” vision. 
Starting October 1, landlords of rent-stabilized apartments will not be able to make that choice for themselves. The freeze is in place for two years, but in an earlier interview, Mamdani signaled he would be interested in extending the freeze. “We need to freeze rents for rent-stabilized tenants for four years,” he <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-landlords.html">told</a> New York magazine before he became mayor.

NYC Congressional Candidate Claire Valdez Holds Primary Night Watch Party

Mamdani’s Rent Freeze Is Just One Piece Of The Socialist Puzzle

Landlord

Politics

Property Rights

MamdaniPiker

New York Has Been Taken Over By The Communists. Your Town Might Be Next.

Democratic Party

Hasan Piker

Western Civilization

This week, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won the Democratic nominations for three New York congressional seats. These deep blue seats are now poised to be held by three individuals who not only hold terrible policy positions but also actively despise the nation they seek to represent.
Take “Democratic” nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, who looks less like a candidate than a conservative&#8217;s parody of one. A Columbia University graduate and PhD candidate, Chevalier narrowly won her race for Congress while accusing her Dominican immigrant opponent of being a racist. She was one of the founders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), and led the illegal occupation of the college campus.
Chevalier’s open disdain for the United States did not stop her from securing the Democratic nomination. A few years ago in a now-deleted Twitter account she said she “just wiped my hand on the American flag.” Her disdain isn&#8217;t reserved for America. She also turns it on the country her parents came from, the Dominican Republic, branding it a racist nation and calling for it to merge with Haiti into a single “black” country.
Another winner, Claire Valdez, campaigned and rallied — like Chevalier — alongside socialist streamer Hasan Piker. Piker is now under Treasury investigation for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions on the Cuban regime. He has said America deserved the 9/11 attacks, and has praised and dressed as tyrants like China’s Mao Zedong, whose policies killed an estimated 60 million people, more than any ruler in history. Valdez hasn&#8217;t merely kept odd company; she has made a “free Palestine” one of her most important issues, rather than the issues that concern people who live in her district. Like Chevalier, Valdez is a downwardly mobile overeducated liberal arts graduate who worked at Columbia University and was a “union organizer” after graduating with a Fine Arts degree in Chicago.
The final DSA congressional winner is the least publicized in part because it seems as if many other DSA members dislike him, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Lander ticks every socialist box: abolishing ICE, taxing the rich, redistributing income, cracking down on corporations, and attacking Israel. But unlike Chevalier and Valdez, Lander is Jewish and thus influencers like Hasan Piker and even Mayor Zohran Mamdani&#8217;s wife, who backed the other two, withheld the same endorsement for Lander.
Antisemitism was so prevalent during this Democratic primary that Congressman Dan Goldman, who is Jewish and was running against Brad Lander for the nomination in New York’s 10th congressional district, was asked not to come back to a coffee shop by the store owner on social media and refunded his payment.
The DSA didn’t just win congressional races this week; they also nominated over a dozen state legislators in New York, and their ranks are poised to grow from <a href="https://nysfocus.com/2026/06/24/ny-primary-election-results-dsa-state-legislature-2026">six to 15</a> state legislators.
Like many of you, I watch unfolding events with deep concern. My homeland was ruined by socialists who came to power not by coup but by ballot, carrying the same ideas I now see on the rise in America. When Venezuelans voted for Hugo Chavez, he too promised to take from the rich, he too hated America and “imperialism,” and he was also a furious antisemite who condemned Israel. His socialist policies were the same: free housing, government grocery stores, price controls, and the seizure of private property. The result was shortages, blackouts, extreme poverty, an exodus of millions, and hyperinflation.
What separates American socialism from Venezuela&#8217;s isn&#8217;t ideology but who votes for it. America’s socialists are mostly young, white, and college-educated. When they had support, Venezuela&#8217;s socialists were older, poorer, less educated, and mostly not of European descent.
While Darializa Avila Chevalier carried New York’s 13th congressional district by <a href="https://votehub.com/2026_ny13dem_primary">winning</a> white college-educated and young voters, Espaillat ran up double-digit margins in the poorest, most Hispanic parts of the district and carried majority-Black precincts. Valdez, who took NY-7, did <a href="https://votehub.com/2026_ny07dem_primary">best</a> in the highest-income, youngest areas and lost Orthodox Jewish precincts badly.
There has never been a nation so rich and so free like America, where the most well-off and educated members of society vote for their own destruction.
***
Daniel Di Martino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. All views expressed are those of the author and not the Manhattan Institute.

I’ve Seen What Socialism Did To Venezuela And NYC Is Next

2026 elections

Democratic Socialists Of America

Tuesday&#8217;s primary elections indicated that the divide within the Democratic Party, between the moderate and the more socialist factions, is only growing ever deeper.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded after three far left candidates — all backed by Democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — swept their individual races, making it clear that he too had chosen a side.
“Our message to the oligarchs: bring it on. After last nights decisive wins, have a new, strong, bold Democratic party,” Khanna said. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Our message to the oligarchs: bring it on.
After last nights decisive wins, have a new, strong, bold Democratic party. <a href="https://t.co/cGqpQozYcn">pic.twitter.com/cGqpQozYcn</a>
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) <a href="https://x.com/RoKhanna/status/2069879382852735291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
“The reality is that our platform of a new deal is resonating, it’s a platform that says no to foreign wars, no to genocide, but it’s also a platform that says yes. Yes to medicare for all, yes to childcare for all, yes to unions for all, and yes to a tax on billionaires and trillionaires.” 
The three Mamdani-backed socialist candidates swept their congressional races on Tuesday, defeating two incumbent Democrats: Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat. Their challengers were viewed by many in the party as radical leftists. 
Democratic primary winners Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez actually belong to the Democratic Socialist party of America. The New York Times Editorial Board <a href="https://nyeditorialboard.substack.com/p/darializa-avila-chevalier-on-housing">learned</a> Chevalier could not name an instance in which she would support a man being imprisoned for murder. Chevalier claimed that when “we put people behind bars in incredibly traumatizing conditions in a context where they cannot actually reflect on the harm that they caused.” 
Along with abolishing prisons, Chevalier has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-socialists-upset-incumbent-dems-in-house-primary-sweep?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Mamdani%E2%80%99s+Socialists+Upset+Incumbent+Dems+In+House+Primary+Sweep">advocated</a> for abolishing police and national borders. Notably, she has said that “all deportations” — including those of immigrants convicted for murder, rape, and assault — should be banned, as imprisoning and deporting would be seen as “double jeopardy.” Valdez, who won New York’s 7th district, supports abolishing ICE, private healthcare, and strengthening unions. 
Khanna is not alone in his support for the “new, strong, bold Democratic party.” Senator Cory Booker voiced support for the new candidates saying, “One of the things that makes the Democratic party great is it’s a big tent party, we need to stay that way.” He <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2069771977041039637">added</a>, “The focus has got to be the November election.” 
Members of the parties’ progressive left such as Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ro Khanna did not recognize the anniversary but celebrated Tuesday’s election. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Alhamdulillah! I can’t imagine experiencing what she had to a still smiling as a first time candidate but respect her grace and resilience and I am very proud of her. We are very lucky to have a principled leader and someone who understands who it means to be a leader carrying… <a href="https://t.co/FpUI1tsr0v">https://t.co/FpUI1tsr0v</a>
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://x.com/IlhanMN/status/2069614828683939898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
However, other establishment Democrats did not comment on Tuesday’s election, focusing their attention on the four-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe V. Wade. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the Democrat’s page recognized the anniversary and did not make a comment on Tuesday’s election night. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
When the Court overturned Roe, one thought kept running through my mind: Women of this generation were about to lose rights that previous generations had fought to secure.
Four years later, we have seen exactly what that looks like — chaos, confusion, fear. Women denied care.…
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/2069823369537614174?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
Senator Bernie Sanders and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani highlighted both events.

Rep. Ro Khanna

Influential Dem Doubles Down on Party’s Hard-Left Turn After Socialist Primary Sweeps

Ro Khanna

Marxist political commentator Hasan Piker celebrated his favorite New York socialist candidates defeating moderate Democrats in the New York primary elections, held on Tuesday.
“It feels like were painting the town red tonight, ladies and gentlemen,” Piker <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2803627514">said</a> to his Twitch audience, celebrating wins from Darializa Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Conrad Blackburn in “tonight’s unbelievable primary race.”
“I&#8217;m so happy to be able to share this incredible experience with all of you, here in the f*cking Commie Corridor — the tip of the spear of the American Socialist Movement — an absolute f*cking blowout,” Piker said.
Piker disowned and hurled expletives at some of the more moderate members of the Democratic Party, accusing them of selling out to big business and Israel.
Piker took aim at Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso, calling him a “wonderful person&#8221; before pivoting to label him a “byproduct of the machine.” He then argued that Reynoso had come to his <a href="https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2026/03/pro-palestinian-pal-pac-endorses-claire-valdez-congress/412325/">anti-Israel position</a> — claiming that Israel was committing &#8220;genocide&#8221; in Gaza and calling for the United States to end all arms sales to the Jewish state — too late, and should be ousted from office because of it.
“And why do I say this?” Hasan added. “Becaasue Israel committed a genocide for two and a half years. And it took Reynoso to recognize that only after he was campaigning against the Commie Corridor. To me, a lot of people can smell the inauthenticity there.”
Piker also reserved harsh judgment for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), saying, “That b*tch right there — read it and f*cking weep, Hakeem!”
Piker also bragged about his own influence in the New York elections, saying that the phone bank he helped with for Chevalier had called some 90,000 people, allegedly swinging the election in the socialist candidate’s favor.
“After tonight, my price went up,” Piker said after learning the news. “You have to be a Democratic Socialist if you want some of this f*cking shine.”
Piker stated that the socialist victories in New York are ushering in “a decade of socialism” that is “coming to a neighborhood near you.”
“When I said we were going to let a thousand Zohrans bloom, this is what I meant,” Piker said. “And that’s because the American people are tired of the same old business as usual politics — the corruption, the ineptitude, the feckless nature of the Democrats that don’t want to fight back against the growth of fascism in this country. This is Americans fighting back. It’s only the beginning.” 
Piker later said that “hopefully we [The Democratic Socialists of America] won’t stop until we can elect socialists in every state and in every district.”
Not all of Piker’s New York endorsements won. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of Congress’s most outspoken supporters of Israel, easily <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/outspoken-zionist-dem-defeats-hasan-piker-backed-primary-challenger?row=0&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;rowType=Web+Search+Overlay">defeated</a> a Left-wing primary challenger Michael Blake, drawing an angry response from the streamer.
Piker has become known for his radical, violent rhetoric, such as saying that “America <a href="https://x.com/EYakoby/status/2048814928874655931">deserved</a> 9/11,” and <a href="https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/2048217117221065201">calling on</a> his followers to “let the streets soak in their f*cking red capitalist blood.” He routinely praises and makes excuses for designated terrorist organizations — like Hamas and Hezbollah — while criticizing the United States and its allies.
He has also faced backlash over a lavish lifestyle that is in clear conflict with his anti-capitalist screeds. For instance, Piker received pushback from his fans and critics for wearing a $1,000 <a href="https://dexerto.com/entertainment/hasan-responds-to-backlash-over-his-1000-coachella-outfit-1807194/">Gucci shirt</a> at the 2022 Coachella music festival. 
He has also recently has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flashback-hasan-piker-admitted-to-colluding-with-cuban-regime-a-year-before-feds-investigated?row=0&amp;elementPosition=14&amp;rowType=Web+Search">subpoenaed</a> by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for his alleged collusion with the Cuban communist government.
Piker has also received some pushback for his radical positions. Piker was slated to speak at SXSW London when the British Home Office suddenly revoked his visa, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-dont-need-open-borders-for-bad-ideas-actually?row=0&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;rowType=Web+Search">stating</a> it would “not be conducive to the public good” for him to enter the country. Piker has also been barred from three Denver-area venues for his planned leftist rallies.

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