Opinion | Democratic socialists deserve a seat at the table

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From the nomination of Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City to the attempted expulsion of members of the Democratic Socialists of America from the Minneapolis DFL, summer 2025 has given us several opportunities to debate the role of socialists in the Democratic Party, and in Minnesota’s political ecosystem specifically. It’s about time.

Please allow me to make the case that anyone interested in a more functional and coherent political discourse should welcome the active and visible presence of democratic socialists in national and state politics.

To start somewhere I think most will agree, our country is facing some massive challenges: Americans are increasingly isolated, increasingly untrusting of major institutions and increasingly frustrated by the material circumstances of their lives. The rise of hateful, violent rhetoric and action, as well as a declining birthrate, signal a terrifying instability in our society.

As a leftist and a professional policy analyst, this instability seems to me the clear result of decades of bad governance by both parties. As a country, we have been unable to make progress on the same problems that have been debated for decades: Health care and housing are still unaffordable and inaccessible, child care costs more than many a full-time salary and the climate seems bound for worsening disaster.

What got us here? Certainly not a shift left, as cynical Republicans and Democrats laughably assert — judged by redistribution and public investment, the U.S. has some of the most conservative politics in the developed world. The answer, if anything, is the opposite: Misguided moderation and catering to corporate interests has suppressed government intervention to an unrealistic and dysfunctional degree.

A little democratic socialism could help straighten this out, asserting as it does that the government exists to solve collective problems, and that we should not run or hide from that reality. In some sense, more socialism could even result in less government overall.

Instead of dozens of struggling nonprofits all receiving arbitrary grants and subsidies, we could adequately fund a public workforce to provide the needed services directly.

The good faith case against the further-left is that it will hurt Democrats’ chances in general elections. But, as mainstream Democrat Pete Buttigieg has rightly pointed out, Republicans will cry socialism no matter what we do or who we nominate; in 2024, moderate Kamala Harris was no less attacked for being too left as democratic socialist Bernie Sanders was during his previous presidential bids.

Judged on its merits, the majority of the democratic socialist agenda should be palatable to a wide range of voters, who overwhelmingly support taxing the rich and funding basic services. What makes it toxic is not the substance, but the centrist obsession with punching left.

What does the term socialist even mean anymore? Universal health care? Dave Portnoy, iconoclast president of anti-woke Barstool Sports, endorsed the idea just a few months ago. Is it socialist to fund public education and infrastructure? State Republicans love to deliver public investment for their school districts and local road systems. Are they socialists?

I know that the internet and social media are dumbing down and toxifying discourse at an alarming rate, but surely there is enough reason left in society to dispel this absurd taboo and allow a coherent conversation about what we can do to make our cities and states run better.

And, frankly, anyone who is part of a political class engendering as much broad distrust as we have today should be embarrassed to point fingers. Respond to the ideas rather than the label.

Omar Fateh’s nomination as the DFL candidate for mayor of Minneapolis will surely spark more mindless fearmongering. But while he self-identifies as a democratic socialist, his track record in the Minnesota Legislature is bipartisan. He has endorsements from moderate Democrats like John Hoffman and Aric Putnam, and a reputation for working and getting along with anyone.

Fateh, like New York’s Mamdani, is a compelling candidate gaining steam. Win or lose, their campaigns will show that the term democratic socialist is just another way of describing someone who wants to make the world a better place, and isn’t afraid to point out that government is how we come together to accomplish that.

Perhaps a socialist is just what we need.