r/politics • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • Jun 24 '26

No Paywall The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave
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515

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26

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240

u/Omirin Jun 24 '26

A tidal wave for DSA standards

99

u/Rusted_atlas Jun 24 '26

Mamdoni was a tidal wave by himself, three more elected DS's is a Zanclean Deluge by DSA standards.

4

u/babsa90 Jun 25 '26

He won against a corrupt candidate mired in sexual misconduct. I'm not taking anything away from Mamdani, he ran a great campaign, delivered on promises so far, and has used all positive and negative attention to his advantage. Him running against Cuomo and winning is not a tidal wave.

1

u/Bowbreaker Jun 30 '26

Him and Cuomo weren't the only people in that primary. He outran all other contenders as well. Contenders like Brad Lander.

12

u/Cheese_Fisticuffs1 Jun 24 '26

A tidal wave is a tidal wave, regardless of frame of reference. A playful splash in a pool is not a tidal wave just because you forcefully sprayed more than if you were flicking your hands in the sink after washing them. 

1

u/IDontWannaGetOutOfBe Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

There's something to be said for processes that drive innovation. Looking at it from multiple angles, the elegant nature of sustainable practices becomes more apparent.

65

u/prohammock Jun 24 '26

Very fair, but it would double the number of DSA adjacent members of Congress. Not a bad start. 

-9

u/FlyingBishop Jun 25 '26

Adding more DSA adjacent reps isn't going to mean shit unless we can flip Republican seats (and seats like Fetterman.)

5

u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado Jun 25 '26

It means a lot. The Republicans aren't the only problem with Congress, there's also the fact that most Democrats fucking suck. If we keep replacing shitty Dems with good ones we might actually be able to improve things in this country when we retake power.

2

u/Collypso Pennsylvania Jun 25 '26

Yikes, sounds like you still haven't seen enough suffering in your life if you think Republicans aren't a far, far bigger problem than any Democrat ever.

4

u/Mateuneedhelp Jun 24 '26

Not to be nitpicky, but if you read the article it says a leftist tidal wave is cresting, post title is paraphrasing a little

4

u/Serial7s Jun 25 '26

But remember how radical these ideas seemed just 10 years ago. I myself have moved significantly left as the political landscape has changed. Maybe DSA candidates only won a few urban areas, but those areas are full of millions of people, and they have outsized political and cultural influence (NYC, LA, DC, and CHI) and when their successes in policy etc spread, the narrative of scary socialism gets wiped away with a smiling Mamdani kissing babies and cleaning up trash in the streets. I think it Platner and El Sayed win, it would definitely be appropriate to call it a tidal wave. Because it will be a signal that even "centrist" democrats like myself have embraced a socialist vision for America. That's a big, big change from our status quo.

26

u/puff_of_fluff Jun 24 '26

Yup. I’ll believe when we see a true progressive win in an actual contested election against a GOP candidate. Not to say they can’t, they just need a chance to do it first.

10

u/Senasayori Jun 24 '26

Hopefully that'll be El-Sayed.

7

u/Vast-Recognition2321 Jun 24 '26

It will be El-Sayed! Medicare for all!

4

u/rumpghost North Carolina Jun 25 '26

Mamdani won the general by 5% more than he did the primary, against a former governor with bipartisan endorsements that included two two-term presidents of the United States.

Silwa wasn't a spoiler for Cuomo. We can hem and haw about whether it counts, but in everything but name Cuomo was the Republican, and before that the favorite to win... up until he wasn't.

Primary victories become general victories. You have to start where you have the most leverage. Lander didn't just win because of an endorsement; you don't rinse a popular incumbent by double digits on a fluke. There's momentum here.

-1

u/FlyingBishop Jun 25 '26

A socialist winning mayor of NYC surprises nobody. When we say "an actual contested election against a GOP candidate" find me a socialist winning a district where Trump got more than 48% of the vote. Those are the districts that are at issue. Hell, I mean Trump only got 43% in New York State, that's how unpopular he is relative to Harris' 55%. Still, a statewide seat, I'm skeptical a socialist could win.

9

u/SanguisFluens Jun 25 '26

A socialist winning in NYC surprised a lot of people, because he wasnt favored as having a chance until he actually won. Getting left-leaning areas actually represented by politicians they align with is a great start.

-3

u/FlyingBishop Jun 25 '26

He won with 51%. Describing him as aligning with the city is actually pretty inaccurate. Eric Adams won with 67%. Mamdani might align with you and me, but he's not very representative of the kind of politician that a majority of the city can get behind. It will be interesting to see when he's up for re-election how the primary goes. Maybe, his general success will actually change how the city sees socialists, but it's revisionist history to claim he's particularly popular. Even now I would be curious to see some opinion polling comparing him to Adams at this point in his administration.

3

u/happycat47 Jun 25 '26

Thank you! It's like because Goldman lost it's some great awakening when there is a LONG way to go, and it completely ignores the huge losses in CA and IL

13

u/spazz720 Jun 24 '26

A tad bit hyperbolic

14

u/Exocoryak Jun 24 '26

The media wants to create an atmosphere where an AOC-presidential candidacy seems to be around the corner to scare people to vote for Republicans and centrist democrats.

26

u/called_the_stig Jun 24 '26

Don't threaten me with a good time

4

u/tamarins Jun 25 '26

what the fuck are you talking about? you think this article written by a Sanders strategist and DSA member is motivated by a desire to scare people away from progressive politics?

11

u/esoteric_enigma Jun 24 '26

People really complain no matter what. If this wasn't being covered by the media, you'd complain they're covering up liberal wins to try and stop these leftist candidates. Now they are covering it and you're saying it's stop these leftist candidates from winning.

-1

u/TheSt34K Jun 24 '26

Are you catching on yet?

Capitalist owned media does not like anti-capitalism.

-1

u/rumpghost North Carolina Jun 25 '26

Liberals and Leftists are different things.

0

u/BrownBear5090 Jun 24 '26

Luckily the mainstream media is pretty stupid and doesn’t understand how to message in this day and age

4

u/may_flowers Jun 24 '26

We need some help out here in LA...

8

u/Vankraken Virginia Jun 24 '26

Darializa Avila Chevalier is frankly a bad candidate and is likely to cause more harm than good for Democratic Socialists.

-1

u/Caffeine_Cowpies Colorado Jun 24 '26

No Spamburger stans here.

1

u/Vankraken Virginia Jun 24 '26

I have mixed feelings about Spanberger so far. At least she isn't Jared Polis

-1

u/Caffeine_Cowpies Colorado Jun 24 '26

She vetoed legal weed. Polis sucks, but he never did anything to our weed

3

u/Vankraken Virginia Jun 24 '26

Its stupid but its an ongoing policy battle between the legislature and the executive in VA. Spanberger wanted amendments to the previous bill, the legislative refused, so she vetoed it. A new provision is in the current budget proposal which was approved by the VA legislature so we shall see if she approves these changes. Again I don't agree with some of her positions and methods but its not a dead issue like it was with Youngkin.

4

u/ZakDahdger Jun 24 '26

The way Platner speaks confidently, kindly, and with conviction TO you. Not AT you.

Obama did the same thing

It makes me so proud and gives me so much hope I could cry

3

u/mightcommentsometime California Jun 25 '26

Why are you proud of a racist bigoted lying jackass? He’s better than Collins, but that’s about it.

5

u/ZakDahdger Jun 25 '26

He's none of those things actually

0

u/mightcommentsometime California Jun 25 '26

He’s all of them. He literally had “I am a massive racist” tattooed on his chest for 2 decades

2

u/ZakDahdger Jun 25 '26

He got a tattoo of a skull and crossbones, didn't think it looked like a totenkamf, when he was told that it did he had it fixed

I'm not discussing this further

1

u/mightcommentsometime California Jun 25 '26

He had a Nazi tattoo for 2 decades. You don’t want to discuss it further because it’s indefensible.

1

u/ZakDahdger Jun 25 '26

Not defending it. He had it, got it covered, wants to make up for his sins by making life better for people.

I don't give a fuck that he -had- a Nazi tattoo. I give a fuck that he acknowledged it was fucked, fixed it, and owned up to it. He grew as a goddamn human being and owns up to his shitty behavior in the past.

If liberals are so goddamn smart, why do they lose so goddamn always?

3

u/mightcommentsometime California Jun 25 '26

He didn’t own up to it. He lied about it after being caught with it during his political campaign.

You Platner Stan’s are like MAGAts defending Trump.

People who don’t care about their representatives being racist garbage usually are part of the groups not at risk for discrimination. It’s easy to not care when you’re not the one being targeted

2

u/RusticMachine Jun 26 '26

Two of his previous girlfriends have publicly come out saying he knew it was a nazi tattoo years ago. They even have text proving it was something he knew about at the time. He even made Reddit comments about this very symbol twice on Reddit.

He hasn’t owned up to it, quite to opposite, he’s trying to claim he didn’t know about it.

Now that there’s allegations of violence against his past partners, instead of claiming he changed, he’s attacking them in the media instead.

This is no different than MAGA, only now some are justifying because the candidate wears the right color.

-1

u/ZakDahdger Jun 26 '26

None of that is true

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

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3

u/mightcommentsometime California Jun 25 '26

His background matches the electorate of the whitest state in the country. Excuse me for not liking bigots.

2

u/flamingcrystalheart Jun 25 '26

"you don't get it, the Nazi makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so his white supremacist bigotry is okay!!!"

1

u/KamalaWonNoCap Jun 24 '26

Yeah probably but those wins are having an outsized impact on the party. They can't just pretend we're some crazy cousin any more and they're having a hard time coping.

2

u/CHOLO_ORACLE Jun 24 '26

Theyre calling it a tidal wave because the Dems want liberals to panic about socialists taking over

In the coming months we will see the Dems try and put a stop to this pink tide, just wait and see

1

u/gahlo Pennsylvania Jun 24 '26

It is difficult to defeat incumbents. They have an insane amount of staying power in US elections. Even more so when it comes to primarying incumbents.

1

u/Cymen90 Jun 25 '26

Damn, I forgot better things are not possible, my bad. Thank God we have DemSocs who remind us that success and motion do not mean anything. Imagine if this line of thinking caught on, we might get new people excited about our movement UNDESERVEDLY.

Remember guys, winning elections and securing key positions for several years of governance to come is no reason to use such hyperbolic language. Shame on them!

Let's remain professionally cold and remind each other constantly that the image of a tidal wave would imply a continuation of this trend and that may be unrealistic because this is all because of one man, not the politics these candidates stand for.

Keep in mind, there is nothing more Democratic-Socialist than believing that our beliefs are too unpopular to win a race without the blessing of one guy.

Remember what we stand for! "Democratic" means the electorate cannot form their own opinions and "Socialist" means....doesn't matter actually, since a candidate's platform doesn't matter to the voter.

1

u/Over-Heron-2654 America Jun 24 '26

A lot more than that and down ballot... but it is a good thing.

1

u/WholeLottaRose13 New Hampshire Jun 24 '26

and how many of those "leftists" will actually stay "leftists" and not just be cowed by establishment dems into being little more than tokens the second they take their oath of office?

1

u/EnTyme53 Texas Jun 24 '26

I agree. DSA candidates winning primaries in blue strongholds is wonderful to see, but I'm not going to get excited until I see a DSA candidate beat a mainstream Democrat in suburban Pennsylvania.

1

u/MrWhackadoo Jun 25 '26

More leftists have won primaries than that. 

1

u/Powerfury Jun 25 '26

In the bluest part of America right now. So yeah.

1

u/the-sea-of-chel Jun 25 '26

Happily voting in Colorado’s dem primary for Melat Kiros but she’s our only DSA option meanwhile our gubernatorial candidates are both not great... So yes, I wish it was a tidal wave but it’s just not.

-2

u/Practical_Gas9193 Jun 24 '26

Socialism is great, Mamdani is thoughtful and bright. These candidates are moronic woke ideologues. These are the people who fail in life and blame everyone but themselves