The Devil’s Cleverest Trick? The DSA’s Communist-platform Misdirection Ploy

We all know that what’s presented in bold lettering may sound great — but watch out for that fine print. This is good advice not just when buying products and services, but also when buying what political candidates are selling.

Just consider the burgeoning Bolsheviks at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). They’ve been winning primaries against establishment Democrats coast to coast. And does it matter that their platform is one Karl Marx would endorse? It should. Yet when the DSA candidates begin running in the general election, they play magician. This means they don’t openly endorse their radical platform, but they don’t disavow it.

Rather, they use misdirection.

In prestidigitation, an example would be a magician waving one hand theatrically while the other hand secretly palms a coin. In DSA-ville, an example is saying “I’m really not focused on that (the platform)” and then segueing to kitchen-table matters. The latter is the misdirection.

Now, before proceeding, let’s be clear on how radical the platform is. And, for sure, this has been related on these pages before, but it’s better heard from the horse’s mouth. As to this, I direct you to an interview Fox News’ Shannon Bream conducted with DSA co-chairman Megan Romer. It’s so shocking that you might suspect it’s an AI-generated deepfake — but it’s not. The exchange, posted to YouTube July 26, went as follows:

Bream: “You just give me sort of a true or false on these — uh, abolish the Senate.”

Romer: “True.”

Bream: “Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them.”

Romer: “Yep.”

Bream: “Abolish ICE.”

Romer: “Absolutely.”

Bream: “Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the US illegally.”

Romer: “As a long-term plan — yep.”

Bream: “Defund the Pentagon.”

Romer: “Absolutely.”

Bream: “Abolish prisons at least in large part.”

Romer: “Yeah, again, that as part of a long-term program, yeah.”

Bream: “Okay, so, no prisons. Uh, government or public ownership of most large corporations.”

Romer: “Yeah. Absolutely.”

The interview is below:

Note, too, that during a July C-SPAN appearance, Ashik Siddique, the DSA’s other co-chairman, also defended the radicalism. “That’s part of our platform,” he said of Senate abolishment, “and we don’t think that’s extreme.”

Well, Romer and Siddique do get an A for honesty, anyway (though not intellectual honesty), with their very un-politician-like responses. There certainly was no misdirection from them.

Roaming Without Romer on the Campaign Trail

DSA politicians trying to win office, however, are a different story. Running on abolishing prisons and defunding the military holds the appeal of an outhouse toilet seat during a January cold snap. They have a problem, too, in that the DSA requires candidates it endorses to embrace their platform. So what is an aspiring communist in Democratic statesman’s clothing to do?

Commentator Leif Larson addressed this Wednesday, pointing out that Siddique himself provided the answer:

Organizers, he told CNN, aren’t knocking on doors asking voters whether they want to abolish the Senate “this year.”

Larsen compares the “this year” qualifier to French poet Charles Baudelaire’s warning about the Devil’s cleverest trick. (It is to “convince you that he does not exist.”) Oh, DSA candidates are all in on the agenda, but they’re using misdirection. As Larson writes at The Hill:

Michigan’s 7th District shows the same move in practice. Will Lawrence, a socialist candidate and Sunrise Movement [a youth-led greentopian climate organization] co-founder, endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), won a competitive Democratic primary in early August running on this platform. Within a month, he let his Democratic Socialists of America membership lapse. Asked if the timing was tied to the general election against Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.) in a toss-up district, Lawrence said no, explaining he wanted to make clear he was there to represent his constituents. Asked where he actually differs from the Democratic Socialists of America on policy, he declined to say.

Lawrence didn’t renounce what he stood for, nor was he expelled by the group. Under its bylaws, unpaid dues are not grounds for expulsion; to be expelled, he would have to say something like Israel has a right to defend itself, he just didn’t pay his dues. Lawrence halted dues with the election near, kept Sanders’ endorsement and the socialists’ support, but he dropped only the label, not the platform.

That’s the trick in play. No candidate needs to disavow abolishing the Senate, the presidency or the Supreme Court. A quietly expired membership lets them answer no to being members of the Democratic Socialists while still espousing everything the platform demands.

Lawrence isn’t the only one trying to convince voters that he isn’t a socialist or tied to their organization’s extreme agenda. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have also tried to distance themselves. To hear them speak, they have never even heard of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Unprecedented?

Of course, it’s hardly unusual for candidates to tack to the center during general-election campaigns. Historically, however, Democrats needed to transition from Walter Mondale-like politics to feigned moderation. The DSA candidates must move from Mao to playing make-believe in the middle.

An exaggeration? Well, it’s not just the DSA ambition to abolish the Senate, prisons, ICE, and borders; neuter the military; grant total amnesty; and make the president and Supreme Court figureheads subordinate to Congress. Romer also said, as a reminder, that the DSA advocates “government or public ownership of most large corporations.” Translation:

They support government “control of the means of production.”

This is pure communism, of course — hiding in plain sight. It all raises a question, too: Will the DSA misdirection work?

The problem is that many Americans are what I call “ethnic Democrats.” That is, 30-35 percent of the electorate reflexively votes Democratic, often oblivious to how the party has changed over time. It’s much as with people loyal to an ice-cream brand that changed its formula. It’s now technically just a “frozen dairy dessert” — but they have no idea. They haven’t checked the ingredients label since 1974 (if even then). They’re happy as long as their unrefined palate finds it pleasing.

(Apropos here, consider a 2020 Democratic Iowa caucus voter I reported on who intended to support presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. She had no idea, and was shocked to learn, that he was a homosexual with a “husband.” And unlike the DSA platform, this was widely publicized.)

As for those who may pay attention, even a bit, a warning from late leftist Maya Angelou is relevant here. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Americans ignore the DSA wolf, poorly hidden beneath sheep’s clothing, at their own peril.