America has never been more comfortable talking about socialism. Young voters are embracing candidates who promise affordable housing, stronger labor protections and expanded public services, with several democratic socialists winning historic elections. Still, in a country built on the ideals of capitalism and democracy, some believe this latest socialist wave may be difficult to sustain.
Whether America is ready for socialism depends on who you ask. We spoke with several experts, including DeNora Getachew, CEO of DoSomething, to understand why this movement is gaining momentum and what it means for voters.
“We are living in a moment where there’s an affordability crisis, where there’s a crisis as it relates to economic mobility and opportunities,” she said. “There’s a crisis as it relates to the future for young people, as they see it.”
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Democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has become the face of a new generation of left-wing politics, campaigning on affordable housing and public investment rather than Cold War ideology. In cities like Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and even in states like Wisconsin, the rise of other democratic socialists has reignited a national conversation about whether the ideology is more then just the latest trend.
As the leader of an international nonprofit aimed at supporting young people, Getachew added, “When you think about the ‘Mamdani effect,’ you think about the rise of voting for candidates who are more progressively aligned.”
Still, like many political insiders, Getachew knows political surges are fleeting.
“What I’m always nervous of is that every few election cycles, we bring new voters into the electorate, people get excited, they turn out to vote for promising, hopeful and energizing candidates,” she told The Root. “If we don’t get an instant gratification outcome, we broadly don’t turn out to vote over and over again.”
History offers reasons for caution. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign revolutionized online organizing, but he failed to win the Democratic nomination. More than a decade later, Sen. Bernie Sanders built one of the largest grassroots political movements in modern American history but twice fell short of leading the Democratic ticket.
Establishment Democratic strategists argue that expanding the socialist coalition to include moderate, rural and older voters remains difficult nationally. Others say the issue is structural, not ideological.
Dustin Wahl, executive director of Fix Our House, an organization advocating proportional representation, argued America’s winner-take-all electoral system is why so many voters are hesitant to embrace new party factions.
“The two-party system, as it exists now, is actually a very new phenomenon,” he explained. “In most of American history, we really had something more like a four-party system because you had liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats, and there was just a lot more diversity within the parties.”
Over the past few decades, experts have warned that American politics has become more polarized than ever. Wahl believes the nation may be approaching a historic turning point.
“We’re in kind of a slow-motion 21st-century civil war with each other,” Wahl said. “Every 50, 60 years or so, America enters a cycle of change, and maybe we’re coming into that right now.”
Even then, folks like Jonah Goldberg, author and editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, aren’t convinced that socialism is the answer to the country’s problems.
“For the past couple of decades, dissatisfaction with the economic status quo has increased support for socialism,” he said. “That’s because people equate the status quo with ‘capitalism.’”
He believes that enthusiasm won’t last. After socialist policies face the realities of governing, Goldberg argues voters could lose confidence and want to return to more market-based policies.
“Once you get beyond the labels and the quirks of polling, reality suggests socialism is a much heavier lift,” he said. “In other words, even if the ‘socialists’ win, they’ll lose at governing. And so will the popularity of socialism.”
