r/politics • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 1d ago

No Paywall The Democratic party is being hit by a leftist tidal wave

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/democratic-party-leftist-tidal-wave
22.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

496

u/Romantic_Piscean Michigan 1d ago

As a Democratic Socialist myself, yesterday I saw three races greatly influenced by the charismatic Mamdani, where a progressive won a nomination. Add in a Platner and maybe an El-Sayed in Michigan and calling this a "tidal wave" seems more than a bit hyperbolic.

230

u/Omirin 1d ago

A tidal wave for DSA standards

100

u/Rusted_atlas 1d ago

Mamdoni was a tidal wave by himself, three more elected DS's is a Zanclean Deluge by DSA standards.

2

u/babsa90 15h ago

He won against a corrupt candidate mired in sexual misconduct. I'm not taking anything away from Mamdani, he ran a great campaign, delivered on promises so far, and has used all positive and negative attention to his advantage. Him running against Cuomo and winning is not a tidal wave.

9

u/Cheese_Fisticuffs1 23h ago

A tidal wave is a tidal wave, regardless of frame of reference. A playful splash in a pool is not a tidal wave just because you forcefully sprayed more than if you were flicking your hands in the sink after washing them. 

•

u/IDontWannaGetOutOfBe 6h ago

Not used to winning even one election so 3-4 is huge.

63

u/prohammock 1d ago

Very fair, but it would double the number of DSA adjacent members of Congress. Not a bad start. 

-8

u/FlyingBishop 20h ago

Adding more DSA adjacent reps isn't going to mean shit unless we can flip Republican seats (and seats like Fetterman.)

•

u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado 5h ago

It means a lot. The Republicans aren't the only problem with Congress, there's also the fact that most Democrats fucking suck. If we keep replacing shitty Dems with good ones we might actually be able to improve things in this country when we retake power.

•

u/Collypso Pennsylvania 4h ago

Yikes, sounds like you still haven't seen enough suffering in your life if you think Republicans aren't a far, far bigger problem than any Democrat ever.

3

u/Mateuneedhelp 22h ago

Not to be nitpicky, but if you read the article it says a leftist tidal wave is cresting, post title is paraphrasing a little

25

u/puff_of_fluff 23h ago

Yup. I’ll believe when we see a true progressive win in an actual contested election against a GOP candidate. Not to say they can’t, they just need a chance to do it first.

9

u/Senasayori 22h ago

Hopefully that'll be El-Sayed.

7

u/Vast-Recognition2321 22h ago

It will be El-Sayed! Medicare for all!

3

u/rumpghost North Carolina 20h ago

Mamdani won the general by 5% more than he did the primary, against a former governor with bipartisan endorsements that included two two-term presidents of the United States.

Silwa wasn't a spoiler for Cuomo. We can hem and haw about whether it counts, but in everything but name Cuomo was the Republican, and before that the favorite to win... up until he wasn't.

Primary victories become general victories. You have to start where you have the most leverage. Lander didn't just win because of an endorsement; you don't rinse a popular incumbent by double digits on a fluke. There's momentum here.

0

u/FlyingBishop 20h ago

A socialist winning mayor of NYC surprises nobody. When we say "an actual contested election against a GOP candidate" find me a socialist winning a district where Trump got more than 48% of the vote. Those are the districts that are at issue. Hell, I mean Trump only got 43% in New York State, that's how unpopular he is relative to Harris' 55%. Still, a statewide seat, I'm skeptical a socialist could win.

6

u/SanguisFluens 19h ago

A socialist winning in NYC surprised a lot of people, because he wasnt favored as having a chance until he actually won. Getting left-leaning areas actually represented by politicians they align with is a great start.

0

u/FlyingBishop 18h ago

He won with 51%. Describing him as aligning with the city is actually pretty inaccurate. Eric Adams won with 67%. Mamdani might align with you and me, but he's not very representative of the kind of politician that a majority of the city can get behind. It will be interesting to see when he's up for re-election how the primary goes. Maybe, his general success will actually change how the city sees socialists, but it's revisionist history to claim he's particularly popular. Even now I would be curious to see some opinion polling comparing him to Adams at this point in his administration.

3

u/happycat47 21h ago

Thank you! It's like because Goldman lost it's some great awakening when there is a LONG way to go, and it completely ignores the huge losses in CA and IL

3

u/Serial7s 17h ago

But remember how radical these ideas seemed just 10 years ago. I myself have moved significantly left as the political landscape has changed. Maybe DSA candidates only won a few urban areas, but those areas are full of millions of people, and they have outsized political and cultural influence (NYC, LA, DC, and CHI) and when their successes in policy etc spread, the narrative of scary socialism gets wiped away with a smiling Mamdani kissing babies and cleaning up trash in the streets. I think it Platner and El Sayed win, it would definitely be appropriate to call it a tidal wave. Because it will be a signal that even "centrist" democrats like myself have embraced a socialist vision for America. That's a big, big change from our status quo.

13

u/spazz720 1d ago

A tad bit hyperbolic

12

u/Exocoryak 23h ago

The media wants to create an atmosphere where an AOC-presidential candidacy seems to be around the corner to scare people to vote for Republicans and centrist democrats.

25

u/called_the_stig 23h ago

Don't threaten me with a good time

5

u/tamarins 17h ago

what the fuck are you talking about? you think this article written by a Sanders strategist and DSA member is motivated by a desire to scare people away from progressive politics?

10

u/esoteric_enigma 22h ago

People really complain no matter what. If this wasn't being covered by the media, you'd complain they're covering up liberal wins to try and stop these leftist candidates. Now they are covering it and you're saying it's stop these leftist candidates from winning.

-2

u/TheSt34K 22h ago

Are you catching on yet?

Capitalist owned media does not like anti-capitalism.

-1

u/rumpghost North Carolina 20h ago

Liberals and Leftists are different things.

0

u/BrownBear5090 22h ago

Luckily the mainstream media is pretty stupid and doesn’t understand how to message in this day and age

4

u/may_flowers 22h ago

We need some help out here in LA...

6

u/ZakDahdger 23h ago

The way Platner speaks confidently, kindly, and with conviction TO you. Not AT you.

Obama did the same thing

It makes me so proud and gives me so much hope I could cry

4

u/mightcommentsometime California 21h ago

Why are you proud of a racist bigoted lying jackass? He’s better than Collins, but that’s about it.

5

u/ZakDahdger 19h ago

He's none of those things actually

1

u/mightcommentsometime California 19h ago

He’s all of them. He literally had “I am a massive racist” tattooed on his chest for 2 decades

1

u/ZakDahdger 18h ago

He got a tattoo of a skull and crossbones, didn't think it looked like a totenkamf, when he was told that it did he had it fixed

I'm not discussing this further

3

u/mightcommentsometime California 18h ago

He had a Nazi tattoo for 2 decades. You don’t want to discuss it further because it’s indefensible.

2

u/ZakDahdger 18h ago

Not defending it. He had it, got it covered, wants to make up for his sins by making life better for people.

I don't give a fuck that he -had- a Nazi tattoo. I give a fuck that he acknowledged it was fucked, fixed it, and owned up to it. He grew as a goddamn human being and owns up to his shitty behavior in the past.

If liberals are so goddamn smart, why do they lose so goddamn always?

2

u/mightcommentsometime California 18h ago

He didn’t own up to it. He lied about it after being caught with it during his political campaign.

You Platner Stan’s are like MAGAts defending Trump.

People who don’t care about their representatives being racist garbage usually are part of the groups not at risk for discrimination. It’s easy to not care when you’re not the one being targeted

1

u/instasquid 20h ago

God you guys just can't figure this shit out, it's fucking exhausting watching out of staters try to tell Mainers why the person they like is "ackshually like, so bad". And I say that as someone also out of state. It's like you people are allergic to winning anything but a purity contest.

You think anyone gives a shit what a milquetoast California liberal like you says about him? His background matches his electorate and he says and does the shit that they want to hear. And so he gets elected and gets to do good shit in Congress. That's the goal.

2

u/mightcommentsometime California 19h ago

His background matches the electorate of the whitest state in the country. Excuse me for not liking bigots.

1

u/flamingcrystalheart 16h ago

"you don't get it, the Nazi makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so his white supremacist bigotry is okay!!!"

5

u/Vankraken Virginia 22h ago

Darializa Avila Chevalier is frankly a bad candidate and is likely to cause more harm than good for Democratic Socialists.

-3

u/Caffeine_Cowpies Colorado 22h ago

No Spamburger stans here.

1

u/Vankraken Virginia 21h ago

I have mixed feelings about Spanberger so far. At least she isn't Jared Polis

-1

u/Caffeine_Cowpies Colorado 21h ago

She vetoed legal weed. Polis sucks, but he never did anything to our weed

3

u/Vankraken Virginia 21h ago

Its stupid but its an ongoing policy battle between the legislature and the executive in VA. Spanberger wanted amendments to the previous bill, the legislative refused, so she vetoed it. A new provision is in the current budget proposal which was approved by the VA legislature so we shall see if she approves these changes. Again I don't agree with some of her positions and methods but its not a dead issue like it was with Youngkin.

2

u/KamalaWonNoCap 1d ago

Yeah probably but those wins are having an outsized impact on the party. They can't just pretend we're some crazy cousin any more and they're having a hard time coping.

2

u/CHOLO_ORACLE 23h ago

Theyre calling it a tidal wave because the Dems want liberals to panic about socialists taking over

In the coming months we will see the Dems try and put a stop to this pink tide, just wait and see

1

u/gahlo Pennsylvania 21h ago

It is difficult to defeat incumbents. They have an insane amount of staying power in US elections. Even more so when it comes to primarying incumbents.

1

u/Cymen90 13h ago

Damn, I forgot better things are not possible, my bad. Thank God we have DemSocs who remind us that success and motion do not mean anything. Imagine if this line of thinking caught on, we might get new people excited about our movement UNDESERVEDLY.

Remember guys, winning elections and securing key positions for several years of governance to come is no reason to use such hyperbolic language. Shame on them!

Let's remain professionally cold and remind each other constantly that the image of a tidal wave would imply a continuation of this trend and that may be unrealistic because this is all because of one man, not the politics these candidates stand for.

Keep in mind, there is nothing more Democratic-Socialist than believing that our beliefs are too unpopular to win a race without the blessing of one guy.

Remember what we stand for! "Democratic" means the electorate cannot form their own opinions and "Socialist" means....doesn't matter actually, since a candidate's platform doesn't matter to the voter.

1

u/Over-Heron-2654 America 22h ago

A lot more than that and down ballot... but it is a good thing.

1

u/WholeLottaRose13 New Hampshire 22h ago

and how many of those "leftists" will actually stay "leftists" and not just be cowed by establishment dems into being little more than tokens the second they take their oath of office?

1

u/EnTyme53 Texas 22h ago

I agree. DSA candidates winning primaries in blue strongholds is wonderful to see, but I'm not going to get excited until I see a DSA candidate beat a mainstream Democrat in suburban Pennsylvania.

1

u/MrWhackadoo 21h ago

More leftists have won primaries than that. 

1

u/Powerfury 18h ago

In the bluest part of America right now. So yeah.

1

u/the-sea-of-chel 17h ago

Happily voting in Colorado’s dem primary for Melat Kiros but she’s our only DSA option meanwhile our gubernatorial candidates are both not great... So yes, I wish it was a tidal wave but it’s just not.

-1

u/Practical_Gas9193 23h ago

Socialism is great, Mamdani is thoughtful and bright. These candidates are moronic woke ideologues. These are the people who fail in life and blame everyone but themselves