Donna Brazile is a member of the Democratic National Committee, for which she has twice served as interim chair.
Contrary to ridiculous fearmongering by President Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) will not let democratic socialists turn America into a communist nation if he becomes speaker. And he won’t let them control the House, either.
I’ve known Jeffries for many years. He’s no supporter of socialism, and neither are most Democrats. An overwhelming majority of Democratic elected officials and candidates are capitalists who love the United States. They want government to work within the market-based system to improve life for all Americans, not just the millionaires and billionaires who are prospering under Trump. Democratic socialists will have an opportunity to work with the rest of the party, but they won’t lead it.
The Democratic Socialists of America backs seven Democratic House candidates who are running this cycle, including the only two DSA members now serving in the House: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). Even if the nominees all win, they will have little influence on the 435-member chamber. The tail won’t wag the dog — not the way the House Freedom Caucus has done with Republicans. Over the past two years, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) hasn’t been able to control the GOP’s far-right flank. But the Freedom Caucus has an outsize influence because it has 31 members — more than four times the number of DSA-backed House candidates.
If he becomes speaker, Jeffries will be able to corral the votes of both democratic socialists and mainstream House Democrats to pass smart legislation. Although mainstream Democrats don’t support the most extreme policies of democratic socialists, the socialists support many Democratic policy priorities. This will encourage the two groups to work together.
Both segments of the party support strengthening the Affordable Care Act. If House Democrats win the majority, they reportedly plan to expand Medicare and reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and ACA subsidies. DSA-endorsed lawmakers can also work with progressive and moderate Democrats to pass other legislation popular with voters that would make energy, college, housing, food and many other products more affordable. Democrats don’t believe Trump’s claim that the affordability crisis is a “hoax,” and the party has an opportunity to come together to solve it.
Likewise, both factions of the Democratic Party also favor bringing Trump’s failed war with Iran to a close, ending his harmful trade wars, stopping his brutal mass deportations of immigrants, reversing his policies that harm people of color and women, regulating artificial intelligence and making the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
The DSA has drawn outsize media attention because its platform is so extreme. It calls for “public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries,” defunding the Defense Department, “fully abolishing the police and prison system,” and abolishing the Senate; it also calls for “Housing For All,” “universal healthcare at no cost to individuals,” “a federal jobs guarantee” and “amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status,” among other demands. Trump and Republicans are trying to convince voters that most Democrats agree with these radical views. Democrats must show that they don’t. Jeffries has already said that he doesn’t support the DSA agenda.
Like him, most Americans are not supporters of socialists. A YouGov poll published in August found that 45 percent of U.S. adults said they would not vote for a candidate who identified as a socialist, while only 27 percent said they would. Even some elected officials and candidates who call themselves democratic socialists, such as Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), don’t back all parts of the DSA platform.
Once serving in Congress, democratic socialists will realize that advocating for pie-in-the-sky proposals accomplishes nothing. They will instead need to work with their fellow Democrats to make less radical change.
In January, Jeffries will probably become the first Black speaker of the House in U.S. history. Like so many Black Americans, he has long had his talents underestimated. If Democrats become the majority party in the House, I’m confident he will do an outstanding job unifying all factions of his caucus to build a better future for the American people.
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