The Big Government Socialist Democratic Party

by Newt Gingrich

The big government socialist wing has become the dominant force in what used to be a much more centrist Democratic Party.

This week Sen. Elizabeth Warren aggressively endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York and attacked former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams. It’s clear where the energy and drive in the Democratic Party is.

Of course, Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary was heralded by an astounding number of Democrats comfortable voting for explicit socialist Senator Bernie Sanders in his 2016 presidential campaign. Running against establishment favorite Hillary Clinton, the Vermont socialist received 43 percent of the vote. When 12 million Americans were willing to turn the White House over to an avowed socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, something profound was happening.

The similar rise of Omar Fateh in Minneapolis, a young big government socialist who is to the left of Mamdani, is another example of the Democratic Party’s shift to a hard left big government socialist party.

This is a giant change. I warned about its emergence in my 2022 book “Defeating Big Government Socialism.” This shift probably could not have been imagined by anyone watching the emergence of Gov. Bill Clinton in 1992 and his election to the presidency.

It may be hard to remember that President Bill Clinton paved his way to a presidential run as a centrist. He was Arkansas’s governor for nearly 13 years. His terms were interrupted by a defeat in 1980, but he won the office back. Bill Clinton was a moderate governor in a conservative state – with a deeply conservative legislature. He presented himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party. Bill Clinton headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991. He specifically wanted to move the party away from strident, aggressive liberalism. He repudiated Sister Souljah’s radical racism, and he emphasized welfare reform in the 1992 presidential campaign. Ultimately, Clinton went all out to move the Democratic Party back to the center. He failed.

The underlying weight of the activist left gradually drove Clintonism out of the Democratic Party (just as the British Labour Party drove Prime Minister Tony Blair out of office and repudiated his adoption of Margaret Thatcher’s reforms).

Move to today: Senator Warren endorsed Mamdani and overtly attacked his less leftwing opponents. Further, she declared Mamdani was the right model for the entire national Democratic Party to follow.

As Senator Warren said:

“For me, New York City is the place to start the conversation for Democrats on how affordability is the central issue, the central reason to be a Democrat, and that delivering on it in meaningful, tangible ways that will touch working families is why we’re here.”

“When someone stands up and says, ‘I will lead this city by making it more affordable — and here are my plans, real plans, plans to deliver on childcare, plans to deliver on housing, plans to deliver. We’re going to experiment. We’re going to try things on groceries. ‘That is the Democratic message.’”

Consider that Mamdani’s plans rely on three huge assumptions – that most Americans think are impossible. Warren’s endorsement is taking the Democratic Party far out on a limb.

The first assumption is that government can do a better job than the private sector with health care, grocery stores, and housing.

The second assumption is that things can be free. Free things must be paid for by someone. As Prime Minister Thatcher said, “the problem with socialism is you run out of other people’s money to spend.”

The third assumption is that New York’s billionaires are dumb.  Mamdani seems to think they will sit and be milked by New York City politicians – or that he will somehow be able to prevent them from leaving. We have already seen two decades of Americans moving out of high tax areas such as California, Illinois, and the Northeast. Does anyone really believe that billionaires will simply sit and have their bank accounts looted? They will simply move to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or some other tax friendly state.

Big government socialism’s problems are compounded by its affiliation with antisemitism and anti-Israeli radicalism. This tie between the economic left and antisemitism are ubiquitous. People like Mamdani and Fateh simply cannot free themselves from the radical views.

Finally, big government socialism is committed to radical social values. Big government socialists stand for deeply unpopular sexual-gender ideology, disastrous energy policies driven by climate change extremists, open borders, and bitter condemnation of law enforcement – when the law isn’t in their favor.

Big government socialism’s takeover of the American left is dramatically weakening the Democratic Party’s appeal.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that a mere 33 percent of national respondents hold a favorable view of Dems. The Journal called this figure the party’s lowest point in its polls over three decades. It also found that a stunning 63 percent of voters hold an unfavorable view of the party.

One last point about language for Republicans (and moderate Democrats who want to save their party). Socialism is much less frightening than big government socialism. Labeling Mamdani as a socialist is dramatically less effective than describing him as a big government socialist (which is apt since all his proposals expand government).

In a poll by America’s New Majority Project, we found that by 50 percent to 22 percent voters prefer capitalism to socialism. However, they prefer free market capitalism to big government socialism by 59 percent to 12 percent.

Defining Mamdani’s and his fellow extreme progressives as big government socialists moves them into a 5:1 minority position.

That is the key to the GOP’s future.

For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.

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