The radical left has a problem. They're succeeding in winning elections.
Now, for any other political party, this might be a great thing. More power usually means more influence, but the issue with the radical left is that the more stage presence they have, the more people tend to find themselves grossed out by it.
The thing about the radical left is that they're great salespeople, so long as the people they're selling themselves to are the ignorant, particularly the youth and the overeducated, which may sound counterintuitive until you realize the overeducated were always taught what to think, not how to.
And the sales pitches to these groups have been working well. As the Daily Caller reported, polls show the youth are more into the idea of socialism than ever before:
Overall, the NYT/Siena poll found that among all Democrats, 49 percent said they held either a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of socialism. However, among older Democratic Party supporters, socialisms favorablility drops, with only 36 percent expressing support among those over the age of 65.
Among white Democrats, 53 percent reported having either a very or somewhat favorable view of socialism, with 54 percent of men viewing the ideology favorably to just 45 percent of women. Notably, only 43 percent of non-white respondents said they had either a very or somewhat favorable view of socialism.
Socialism, according to the NYT/Siena poll, is most popular with Democratic Party supporters who hold either a bachelor’s degree or higher, with 59 percent reporting either a very or somewhat favorable view. Among respondents without a bachelor’s degree, just 40 percent viewed socialism either very or somewhat favorably.
Am I surprised? Not in the least. Socialism has gotten some really great press over the last decade, and most of it's been aimed at the youth. Major news outlets have featured representatives of the ideology like Hasan Piker as some sort of folk hero who thinks we should eat the rich... just not him.
Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York was not just a big indicator of socialism's popularity. The win was treated by the press as a new dawn of sorts, which also lent it some cultural weight.
All the cool people were socialists. Get on board or be left behind.
And to that I say... I agree.
Because nothing educates quite like a mistake, and of all the mistakes one can make, socialism has got to be somewhere at the top.
For starters, Mamdani's budget is already a joke, where the punchline is the misery of New Yorkers. As The Heartland Institute noted last week, Mamdani's budget for the city of over eight million people is effectively a lot of sleight of hand with funding that makes today's bad problems tomorrow's worse problems.
Read: Mamdani’s ‘Balanced Budget’ Is an Accounting Atrocity
Piker's bravado is quickly fading as the government begins looking into his connections to foreign groups. He's squirming, but selling himself as a martyr to his audience, which now includes the legacy media. I wouldn't be surprised to see articles spring up left and right, painting Piker as a victim of an authoritarian regime. Regardless, there will be a fat group of people who sour on Piker should it be discovered that he's working with external forces to harm the country. His die-hards won't budge an inch, and the press will do its best to cover for him, but ultimately, a rift will occur.
To be clear, one was already there thanks to his beef with YouTuber and streamer Ethan Klein. Piker's popularity with the legacy media has only made him a larger internet lolcow.
Read: Hasan Piker v Ethan Klein: The Left's Gen Z Radicalization Pipeline Is Collapsing From Within
Radical leftism is always its own enemy. It can only survive when there's a militaristic back to enforce it, which radical leftists in this country just don't have. Nothing is protecting it when the policies inevitably leave the people sick and tired of its life-destroying outcomes. Meanwhile, its greatest defenders are embarrassing themselves daily.
The trend will die by its own hand, but it will have to get worse before it gets better.
And once it does, you'll start to see a trickle of dissonance on TikTok and Instagram that will quickly turn into a flood. Socialism's popularity isn't long for this world.
