Earlier in the week, the Democratic Socialists of America gathered for their yearly convention (how many years it has transpired prior, I’m not sure). The event was largely overshadowed by the tragic mass shootings that took place over the weekend, as it should have been.

Most of the coverage of the DSA convention that did make it through was in jest, rightly laughing at just how crazy these people are. RedState’s Alex Parker shared one of the more hilarious clips, which involved multiple people attacking each other over their various triggers.

Man, the future is bright isn’t it?

There’s a much darker side to all this, though. Namely, the policies these people are pushing and the power they are beginning to amass.

As Robby Soave notes at Reason, it wasn’t all trigger warnings and pronouns.

No one should come away from the coverage of the DSA convention with the idea that attendees did nothing but call-out each other’s pronouns, though. Listening to the livestream I heard heated discussions about significant policy issues: criminal justice reform, supporting the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and combating “Lex Luthor-esque scumbag Jeff Bezos.” Of all the various factions of progressive activism, the DSA is by far the most organized, and the least likely to be derailed by culturally woke signaling.

Currently, the most visible member of the Democratic party is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. That would be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the span of just a few months, she’s managed to get Democrats who used to be considered mainstream to support near complete socialist takeovers of the economy, such as the so called “Green New Deal.”

That can’t be ignored. The policies these people are pushing are gaining popularity, especially among younger voters. A poll at the end of 2018 showed that a full 31% of millennials identified as “socialists.” Other polls show a majority disapproving of capitalism and over 50% of millennials preferring to live in a socialist country.

These are people who either weren’t born yet or have no memory of the rabid evils perpetuated on the world by socialism. They don’t acknowledge the gulags, the poverty, the bread lines, and the murderous authoritarianism. It’s all unicorns and rainbows.

Groups like the Democratic Socialists of America are not going away. They are growing and their ideas are now being appropriated by one of the two mainstream political parties. This all happened over the course of less than five years. Imagine what the landscape may look like after another decade.

The Republican party better figure out a way to combat this stuff and do it quickly. The hope that the Democrats and their socialist members will just collapse from within is a fool’s hope.

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