America’s Democratic Socialists are having the summer of their lives
Could a far-left candidate win the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 2028?
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Michigan Democratic Senate primary winner Abdul El-Sayed with his wife, Sarah Jukaku, at a press conference in Detroit on Aug 5.
PHOTO: AFP
The Economist
Four years ago, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were in a funk. Jacobin, a left-wing magazine, depicted on its cover three DSA-friendly lawmakers in a waiting room and declared the group in purgatory.
Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020 had made Democrats complacent – they had gone “back to brunch”, in the pejorative of the left. Then came the war in Gaza; progressives found their animating cause in Palestine. Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris strengthened their case for change: What were establishment Democrats good for if they couldn’t stop his second coming?
