29/07/2026
Already, the DSA’s advances are stirring consternation—and sometimes panic—among mainstream Democrats dreading their own Tea Party moment in which a radical fringe hijacks the party and taints their brand just as they are trying to appeal to swing voters to win control of Congress in November’s midterms.
Just this month, the DSA called for defunding the Defense Department, abolishing police and getting rid of the Senate, and replacing the president and Supreme Court with representatives “chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”
“The DSA poses a fundamental threat to the Democratic Party and to the nation as a whole. Based on their own platform, they are working to undermine our society, our economy and our form of government organization, including our constitution,” said Jamie Metzl, a veteran of the Clinton National Security Council and State Department, and one of more establishment Democrats sounding the alarm lately.
DSA national leaders like Sara Almosawi, 24, scarcely hide their disdain for a Democratic Party they view less as a partner than a hostile takeover target. “Ultimately, the strategy of the DSA has been to primary mainstream Democrats. And we’re going to continue to do that,” she said on a recent afternoon as she sat in a Yemeni coffeehouse in Brooklyn. “We’re gonna take it over. We’re done with this. They’re not meeting the American people where they are.”
Once a fringe wing, the movement is wielding surprising political power, capitalizing on popular discontent. Mainstream Democrats see a ‘fundamental threat.’
