Because they know their world history, however, numerous people are telling AFN those promises always end with blood flowing in the streets.
After the recent political success of Democratic Socialists of America, which flipped three congressional seats in New York City primaries, veteran conservative activist Gary Bauer is alarmed over the group's growing power. He told American Family News nobody should ignore or underestimate the threat DSA poses.
“There have been existential threats to our country before: the Revolution, the Civil War, World War II,” he said. “We are facing an existential threat.”
AFN previously reported how three liberal incumbent Democrats in New York City were ousted in a June primary thanks to the DSA. Congressional candidates Darializa Avila Chevalier (pictured above) and Claire Valdez are DSA members, and were endorsed by the group.
A third candidate, Brad Lander, was helped by DSA's political machine that later bragged the group now has a “mandate” in New York’s boroughs.
Asked to comment to AFN about the rise of avowed socialists and communists, the White House shared a CNN story about Chevalier's open admiration for communism in social media posts.
CNN's story describes how she praised Karl Marx's writings, and complained about a lack of communist literature in public libraries, among many other controversial comments.
A second story shared with AFN is another CNN story about Democrat Graham Platner, the now-former congressional candidate from Maine.
That story, published last fall, describes how Platner called himself a communist, and ripped law enforcement and mocked rural voters, in social media posts.
Platner was forced to drop out of the race in recent days amid sexual misconduct allegations after Democrats, hoping to pick up a U.S. Senate seat, ignored scandal after scandal.
The CNN story shared by the White House was published in October, eight months before he would finally drop out after a woman described being sexually assaulted by him.
DSA opposed avowed communists
Founded in 1982 by Michael Harrington, a political science professor and author, Democratic Socialists of America has mirrored Europe’s move toward social democracy that hit corporations with heavy regulations and heavily taxed the wealthy.
Despite being compared to communists, the original DSA bylaws condemned “democratic centralism” in other nations. That phrase was known by the Left as criticism of authoritarian regimes, such as the Soviet Union and China, which were once denounced by the DSA.
Since he died in 1989, Harrington was not alive to witness DSA members vote in 2025 to drop the anti-communist bylaws that ejected members who advocated for communism.
DSA members in the “Red Star Caucus” and the “Communist Caucus” (pictured at right) denounced those bylaws and convinced the organization to drop the rules that would have gotten them kicked out.
A year after that pivotal change to its bylaws, Fox News reports the socialist group plans to unveil a radical new national platform for the United States government.
Under that plan, the DSA would replace the office of U.S. president and the U.S. Supreme Court with a new president and new justices who are chosen by Congress. That plan also calls for abolishing the 100-member U.S. Senate in favor of a single legislative body.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight, whose recent article warns about the DSA and communism, told AFN that socialism is based on human envy. That envy for other people’s wealth and possessions, he said, is what led to violence and bloodshed around the world during the previous century.
“It always has to resort to violence eventually,” he warned. “Because it's so against human nature to have something taken from you that you've earned and just given to someone else.”
“In every instance it’s been tried, communism has failed miserably and left total devastation in its tracks,” Natalie Baldassare, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, told AFN.
“Democrats running on the disastrous policies of Maduro, Castro, and Xi Jinping are fleecing voters, and those who support them will learn the hard way what it feels like to have empty shelves, no electricity, and their freedoms stripped away,” she added.
Mirroring Bauer’s warning, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told AFN the embrace of socialism and communism by the Democratic Party is an “existential threat” to the nation.
While the Democrats abandon the values that built our country, she said, “President (Donald) Trump will keep calling out their radicalism and draw a sharp contrast with his commonsense, America First agenda."
