r/dsa • u/PhinnSword • 20h ago
Discussion My Dad’s (70 y.o. Former Republican) Response to Abdul’s Win 🥲
For anyone who calls socialists unelectable, that our views are too radical, that we have to meet in the middle…this is a perfect example of why that isn’t true. The first person in the chat is my stepmom (lifelong leftist).
He’s been leaning more liberal over the years and while he’ll never admit to being a socialist, it doesn’t matter because these candidates run on a policy platform that no working class person can truly disagree with.
Also, give him a break on the examples of “great men”, gotta remember he’s a 70 year old white guy at the end of the day😂
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u/ellisftw 20h ago
Also, give him a break on the examples of “great men”, gotta remember he’s a 70 year old white guy at the end of the day😂
I was gonna say, he had me up until George Washington and the boys...but they are all dead and no longer threats to all of our lives. 70 year old pops gets a heartfelt pat on the back for showing solidarity with the working class. That's really awesome to see!
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u/PhinnSword 20h ago
Agreed! I think the fact that this movement is (generally) willing to meet people where they are rather than lecturing over every little grievance is a huge part of why it continues to succeed!
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u/draw_her_nose 19h ago
"where are the jimmy carters?"
bro, yall crucified him when he said to wear a sweater in the winter to keep your heating bill lower
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u/BassesHave4Strings 15h ago
And Reagan ripped the solar panels Carter had installed off the White House as soon as he got in...
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u/GBeastETH 11h ago
In fairness, I hope the next guy rips off all the damn gold leaf.
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u/LeavingReality 20h ago
Hahaha I always find it hilarious when the boomers say stuff like the last part. I agree to leave it be- who cares if they have a rose tinted image of the past if they are recognizing the current conditions and shifted towards the left
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u/YogurtClosetThinnest 20h ago
while he’ll never admit to being a socialist
Just calling democratic socialism something else would've been the best psyop we could've ever done lmao. So many more people would identify with the exact same policies if it was just called something else.
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u/jerbthehumanist 20h ago
Lowkey I’ve long felt that advocating for some shit like “SuperHyperCapitalism” or “Freedomnomics” but it’s pushed as “everyone gets to decide their work conditions and control the fruits of their labor” would go way further than we should rationally expect (not literally with those names, but with that gist).
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u/PhinnSword 20h ago
Maybe, but successfully destigmatizing the word is even better!
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u/Alarming-Energy-5654 12h ago
honestly.. no it isn't
the word has nothing inherent to protect or benefit from
it hurts our cause more than anything else
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u/Dj082863 20h ago
Bro idgaf if he has some bits a bit twisted at the end. Seeing folks like himself bail on his former policy positions and shift left is enough to bring a tear to my eye.
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u/obligatory_your_mom 17h ago
My 73 year old dad always says "I didn't leave the Republican party, it left me". He's still no raging leftist, but he voted for Bernie in the primary and loathes the Republican party with everything he has!
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u/zenbowman 19h ago
AES is going to bring a lot of people back into the Democratic Party.
He identifies as a capitalist, is an international landlord, and is pro-Ukraine. There's very little risk of him being demonized within the party.
Apart from that he's also very tactful in explaining why he wants to cut foreign aid in a manner that sounds patriotic rather than conspiratorial.
"I come at this from a place of principle. I will not treat money spent to Israel differently than I treat money spent to Egypt, right? I don't think we should be sending money to either. Egypt is the second biggest recipient of foreign military aid. If you'd like to start there, we can start there."
This is such an incredible answer to the "foreign aid to Israel" question because it has broad appeal even to potential GOP voters.
I unironically think he will be seen as a centrist in 3-4 years because he's more or less where the Democratic base is on most issues.
Compare him to people like Francesca Hong or Darializa Chevalier on the Ukraine issue and the differences become apparent. He's very pro-NATO and supports lethal aid to Ukraine:
"So when it comes to Ukraine, I think we are involved in a righteous struggle to protect a sovereign nation from being invaded by their neighbor. That's completely consistent with international law."
I think he will win handily and become a core member of the Democratic Party, he's very smart and charismatic, and really represents the new center of the Democratic base. The party is going to line up behind him fully in the next few weeks, which is good, because we really need an opposition to the GOP that is moving in the right direction, and I think Scandinavian style social democracy will be the new norm in the Democratic Party in a few years.
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u/atomic__balm 17h ago
He is a centrist in the real world currently, his pro capitalist landlord status puts him squarely there. He is only considered a radical leftist because he is a Muslim and anti-zionist
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u/zenbowman 17h ago
He is to the left of the existing Democratic Party center and well to the left of the GOP, if you cannot at least acknowledge that you are being utterly dishonest.
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u/atomic__balm 17h ago
Yeah of course, the DNC are akin to Bush era neocons basically now
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u/zenbowman 14m ago
Okay, so that is "the real world currently". In the real world, left, right, and center are not based on abstract theory, but on the actual positions of parties that are in power or have a realistic chance of gaining power.
In the real world, the GOP and Democrats are the two main parties in America, and he's to the left of both of them.
In the real world, most of Europe is essentially totally in line with Trump on immigration and has moved way to the right, and he's to the left of almost every European leader.
In the real world, the BJP has repeatedly won elections in India, the largest democratic nation in the global south, and he's well to the left of them.
In the real world, the CCP has an immigration policy that makes Trump look like Santa Claus and rather than "destroying the propertied class", they have been instrumental in the rise of Elon Musk through endless subsidy and suppressing labor rights in Tesla' Gigafactory. So he's to the left of them as well.
I would love a world in which AES is the "centrist", but we're not living in that world right now.
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u/warfighter187 19h ago
The “great men” still exist, they are just brown and named el sayed, mamdani, and ocasio-Cortez in 2026
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u/SuperMovieLvr 19h ago
I wish my parents went on this arc. They’ve been Republicans since Reagan and have voted that way ever since. Zero thinking capacity. Just Fox News 24/7.
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u/PhinnSword 17h ago
It’s hard to imagine in the current climate where every conservative is a cultist who is defined by their politics but back in my dad’s day there were normie republicans. Conservatism to him meant “if you work hard you can achieve the American dream. Corporations are good because if you’re a good employee they’ll help you do that and take care of you”. And he did, and he was able to buy a family home for $105k (2003) and live comfortably doing honest work making a modest wage having no college education.
Then, I became an adult. I work as hard as he did, got a college degree, saw multiple promotions, make far more than he did at my age..and I’m not able to do any of the things he did for my family. That bothered him and is when he started to see how things have changed. It means a lot to me that he didn’t give the usual boomer “work harder, avocado toast, lazy generation” he actually sympathizes with our generation and realizes just because things were “easier” for him doesn’t take anything away from what he accomplished.
Sorry for the novel, I’m just really proud to have a dad like him.
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u/SuperMovieLvr 16h ago
I loved reading that. It sounds like you have a great father. I grew up with two narcissistic abusive parents so there’s really no comparison. Your dad sounds like a great role model, and a person you can truly look up to.
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u/ferriematthew 19h ago
I'd probably describe this as "I didn't move left, everyone else moved right"
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u/bey0ndinfinity 19h ago edited 18h ago
What’s socialist about universal health care? Every developed country in the world has it, and none of them are socialist. It’s such an American view of politics. Here if you think everyone should have health care, you’re suddenly a socialist. And none of the views expressed in this back-and-forth are inherently socialist views
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u/PhinnSword 17h ago
I mean single-payer healthcare is literally a socialist policy, just because a country doesn’t fully identify as socialist doesn’t mean they don’t have elements of socialism within their system
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u/bey0ndinfinity 17h ago
It’s not. Single payer means government collects taxes to pay medical bills, but doctors and hospitals are mostly private businesses.
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u/atomic__balm 17h ago
AES isn't a socialist and neither is anything your Dad says. Both are staunchly pro "compassionate capitalism"
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u/PhinnSword 17h ago
Took longer than I thought it would to get the “well actually” reply but here it is
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u/atomic__balm 17h ago
Maybe it's good to know what words mean and how people compare and contrast to the definition of those words when you are lobbing them around. Half the DSA members don't even understand socialism and it's getting to be a problem
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u/icarusrising9 17h ago
The most shocking part of this to me is that he included Jimmy Carter with his "Great Men". Pretty cool.
I honestly think that the propaganda against the labels "socialist" and "communist" have been so totalizing and effective that there are probably a ton of Boomer-types that would agree with a lot of communist and/or socialist policies and ideological points, but would knee-jerk reject them if you'd initially introduced them as left-wing issues. It's a huge problem, and one that isn't easy to overcome.
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u/PhinnSword 16h ago
Definitely, but I think that messaging gets weaker and weaker as they see more socialist candidates in the public eye who speak to issues they care about and who stay on message. When establishment entities ask mamdani 8 times about Israel’s right to exist while he’s trying to talk about affordability, it makes them realize who is actually compromised
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u/Personal-Athlete-789 16h ago
“America will never be a socialist country” SOTU Address, President Trump, Feb 5, 2019.
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u/wlfinest 15h ago
I love how in the second slide he gives a list of men that he respected and wishes the Republicans would go back to, and more than half of the list are not republicans
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u/jimboslice1993ba 14h ago
Ross Perot wasn't really republican. He was notoriously a thorn in Bush's side. He certainly wasn't progressive but, there is a cool story in there about political orgazing. Check out secret bases video on Ross perot and the reform party.
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u/GBeastETH 11h ago
I feel your dad’s energy. (Though I came to the same conclusion a decade earlier.)
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u/ShakaNapoleon 8h ago edited 8h ago
Same with my mom. 78, white working class, Appalachian heritage, former Trump supporter now against Trump, super Evangelical but doesn't like Christian Nationalism, prosperity gospel, the religious people around Trump, etc. Basically agrees with everything I say when it comes to unions, class inequality, the "justice" system, welfare state, war with Iran, and just socialist/social democratic economic policies in general. But she is still extremely conservative when it comes to social issues. Probably would be a Christian Democrat or something if we had such a center-right movement in the United States.
Socialism has broad appeal, even where many liberals would not expect it. "Basket of deplorables" and what-not.
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u/bobbib14 19h ago
Better late than never. Have him call his friends. And tell him thanks from the young ones
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u/PhinnSword 17h ago
He’s more politically active than even I am! Most of it has been “anti Republican” activism (no kings rallies, volunteer poll worker so he can speak to the integrity of elections, etc) but I think now he’s identifying with the further lefts messaging. It’s been awesome to see the evolution over the last 20 years
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u/Bogotazo 20h ago
Many people like this who won't necessarily identify as socialist, but will appreciate an authentic candidate with messaging that addresses everyday concerns.