Political Fringes

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Oct. 17, 2026

The playbook for some political candidates this cycle is calling your opponent a Democratic Socialist. To be fair, there are Democrats running for office calling themselves that, and there is an official organization called the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). They even have a website and, to their detriment, a platform.

What do they want and support? They have very big aspirations.

Let’s see...they believe housing is a universal human right therefore rent and mortgages should be free or nearly so. Healthcare should be free, cradle-to-grave, and all education should also be free all the way to graduate and even post-graduate school. Daycare, of course, must be free, as should all school meals which must include both breakfast and lunch. At the same time, we’ll replace some of our law enforcement personnel with social workers so we can get to the true “root causes” of crime. Fewer police, more police training.

If this sounds like it might be a little pricey, you would be hearing correctly. The Cato Institute, which is more closely aligned with Libertarianism than either of the two major parties, has put some numbers to these ideas and they are very big numbers, indeed. Depending on just how all-encompassing they would be, Cato estimates the cost at between $47 trillion and $212 trillion just over the next 10 years. Advocates claim reducing defense spending and increasing taxes on the rich will fund the changes, but we know that is not going to happen.

How likely is any of this to come to fruition? The chances are pretty close to zero because the number of DSA true-believers is minuscule and without the political clout to do much of anything at all.

The Pew Research Center says 29 percent of voters identify as registered Democrats and about a third of them are at least sympathetic to the idea of calling themselves democratic socialists. That means only about 9.5 percent of voters fit that description. The numbers get even tinier when it comes to actual membership in the DSA.

Only two members of Congress, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, are DSA members. That’s it, two out of 435. Senator Bernie Sanders describes himself as a “democratic socialist” but does not belong to the DSA. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is often accused of being a Socialist, rejects the description altogether.

The National Association of State Legislatures says there are 7,386 state legislators
in our 50 states of which 3,237 are Democrats. But there are only 15 DSA members in state senates and another 58 in lower state houses. So about 0.02 percent of Democrat legislators are DSA members. Not exactly a groundswell of support.

DSA membership is even tinier at the local levels. According to Ballotpedia, there are seven mayors and 110 members of city councils and city commissions who acknowledge DSA membership. But there are 19,500 mayors and more than 116,000 local elected officials. That means 0.0004 percent of mayors and 0.0009 percent council/commission members belong to the DSA.

On the other side of the aisle, we have Republicans who identify themselves as Christian nationalists, a belief system that posits this is a Christian nation, Christianity should be the national religion, the Bible should be taught in public schools, LGBTQ+ rights should be restricted, Biblical teaching should be fused with national laws, and the separation between church and state should be removed.

About 31 percent of voters are registered Republicans and, according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), their 50 state survey found that 56 percent of Republicans self-identify as Christian nationalist or express beliefs that would put them in that category. That would be about 17 percent of registered voters.

The likelihood of any part of the DSA platform being enacted at any level is extremely close to zero. While there might be some “hey, that sounds like a good idea” support among some, the reality is there is no appetite for this stuff among the mainstream population and there is even less appetite among elected officials at any level.

On the other hand, Christian nationalism is happening before our very eyes. Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas now have laws that require the Ten Commandments be placed in every public school classroom. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide if this preference of one religion over all others violates our constitution, as it would seem to do.

Christian nationalism adherents have become a little too close to groups calling themselves white nationalists who have, unfortunately, conflated religion with their racism so some now advocate for white Christian nationalism.

There isn’t going to be any free-everything legislation; we already have enough socialism in the U.S. and aren’t likely to approve much more. Nor are we likely to accept a theocracy. Political fringes have a long history of failure. We need not accept more.