DSA's Critics Are Missing the Point About the Working Class

At this year's Fourth of July celebration, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Donald Trump devoted part of his speech to an attack on "communism." Sounding a note from an earlier era of the nation's history, he hissed about the "communist menace," which he called "a mortal threat to American liberty," a "cancer" that needs to be "cut out," and "the greatest threat to our country."

Trump never explicitly said which "communists" posed this threat in 2026, but the context was obvious enough. A week and a half earlier, three self-described democratic socialists won congressional primaries in New York City. Two were members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In combination with several downballot victories the same night, and DSA victories in congressional primaries shortly before (in Philadelphia) and shortly afterward (in Denver), this created a palpable sense of socialist momentum.