No, Americans haven’t embraced socialism. Suffering people have given up on politics as usual.
New York Mayor and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani gained national notice for his supposed ideological differences. (Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
A clergyman who had spent years in foreign missionary efforts once explained how the work — building housing, digging wells, feeding and clothing people — morphed into a Christian message.
Missionaries didn’t show up talking about Jesus and the Bible, he said. They busy themselves trying to meet the immediate needs of the people there. Otherwise, residents couldn’t hear their Christian witness.
Eventually, the people would finally exhale and ask, “Why would you travel here and do so much for us?”
That gave the missionaries their opportunity to share Christ’s message.
Much of national news media seems to be missing this formula amid talk of an ideological split on the left and an insurgent push by Democratic socialists. Suffering people don’t care about ideology. They care who heard their desperate cries for help.
Since voters swept New York Mayor and Democratic socialist (he’s also a member of the Democratic Party) Zohran Mamdani into office in January, his opponents and some news media chalked his win up to voters swayed by a new ideology.
Balderdash.
The reality? Politicians such as Mamdani and Florida Rep. Angie Nixon, who in recent days upset retired Gen. Alex Vindman in a U.S. Senate race, heard the kitchen table chatter about how soaring food and fuel costs threaten to sink them.
New York voters said the rent is too damn high. They said they live in food deserts. They said they can’t afford childcare. Mamdani could have espoused any faith tradition because voters essentially said: “Whatever Mamdani believes, it’s less important than him listening to us.”
This phenomenon isn’t new.
Religious “brand loyalty” continues to fade. Denominational churches are giving way to nondenominational megachurches. Increasingly, blue voters and red voters have rebranded themselves as independents.
Aside from civics and C-SPAN nerds (like me), I’m not convinced that wide swaths of working Americans care much about political ideologies.
For the record, democratic socialism seeks a democratically run economy dominated by people with decentralized government control and political freedom. Americans have grown weary with our “leave no billionaire behind” economy and increasingly consider news organizations and mainstream politicians as accomplices.
My old boss, Davis “Buzz” Merritt, at the Wichita Eagle, argued that journalism suffered a debilitating addiction to conflict.
Who said what about whom? So, he doesn’t like him? Who is winning the horserace?
Worse, the journalistic elites and the politicians they cover can form an insular loop with shared celebrity status, Merritt said.
“The increasingly high profile of political reporters, and their constant appearances on television shows as pundits rather than as reporters, the unceasing self-promotion of star anchors by television networks and local outlets, and the fawning celluloid celebration of the Watergate journalists began to meld politicians and political journalists into an amorphous and distant ‘they,’ ” Buzz wrote more than 30 years ago in his book, “Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling The News Is Not Enough.”
“Journalists and politicians looked and often acted like a cohesive establishment of elites: imbued with insider status; playing by arcane rules and keeping score with irrelevancies; seemingly indifferent, if not impervious, to outside challenge,” he wrote.
It is understandable then how some journalists and some politicians lose their connection to the struggles of everyday people. Families that can barely afford rent or childcare probably aren’t preoccupied with who controls the means of production.
While the working class and the middle class fret about survival, elites have twisted our democratic republic into something resembling a fascist state. A handful of individuals wallow in more wealth than some nation-states.
They control all three branches of government. They gave themselves tax relief on the backs of society’s most vulnerable. They now seem intent on tightening their grip on power by funding attacks on voting rights. I’m not sure that these figures care about ideology. Their belief system, low-road capitalism, centers power and dominance.
Are we witnessing the emergence of a new political party? Maybe.
What feels more likely is that our economy and politics have grown so hot, so oppressive, so inflamed, that voters no longer care about what’s on the screen. They’re leaping from their seats and following people who’ve won their trust, through the nearest exit.
People understand their basic needs and they are voting accordingly.
Mark McCormick is the former executive director of the Kansas African American Museum, a member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and former deputy executive director at the ACLU of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.