Would joining the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) make me one of Trump’s “enemies within”, a target of harassment by Trump’s jackbooted thugs?
What harm could there be in joining the DSA? Does the DSA allow Veterans to join?
Go ahead and join. They don’t care if you’re a veteran and Trump equally doesn’t care if you’re a member. There is zero harm in joining.
Trump’s unspecified “enemies within” is a broad umbrella encompassing political opponents, civil servants and military officers who object to his illegal orders, ‘the media’ except for maybe Fox & Friends, any woman who have ever said “No” to him in any context, Samuel L. Jackson for publicly accusing him of cheating at golf, all Daily Show correspondents and hosts (past and present), at least two of his children (reader’s choice), and former supplicants and hangers-on who are no longer of any use to him. We are all Trump’s “enemies within”. Joining the DSA isn’t even going to ding the bell.
Stranger
The DSA is basically the left wing of Trumpism. The only thing of importance that they disagree with him about is Israel. Otherwise they’re lock-step on all their priority issues - keep building housing illegal, support for Russia and Syria, America and constitutional government suck, the Democratic Party is the source of all the evil in the world, etc.
Eventually, Juan Peron turned on his leftist supporters, and eventually Trump will do the same, but for now, no, you’re way down the list of potential “enemies.”
I don’t want in any way to be associated with Trumpism. Would the Socialist Party USA be an anti-Trump alternative?
No, he’d probably send you a MAGA coffee mug and a note of thanks for helping him own the libs and get elected.
If you really want to get on his enemies list, become a librarian or a schoolteacher, or Democrat.
Yes, this snippet from their home page indicates how much they have in common:
“The Democratic Socialists of America are fighting to win a world organized and governed by and for the vast majority, the working class. We are socialist because we share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships. We are democratic because we know that this transformation cannot be won from the top down, by a small group of elites who claim to have all the answers, or by even well-meaning politicians. This transformation can only come from the bottom up, when millions of working-class people stand together. DSA organizes to realize our working-class collective power, which stems from the reliance of the capitalist economy on our labor. Democracy is necessary to win a socialist society. Socialism is the complete realization of democracy.”
Notwithstanding the above, I expect Stranger’s observation, that “Joining the DSA isn’t even going to ding the bell,” is likely correct. At the same time, blaming the DSA for Trump is progressive orthodoxy and militant centrism at their worst.
I’ll continue judging both the DSA and Trump on their actions, not their press releases. I put as much stock in the DSA’s mission statement as I do in the notion that what Trump wants is to “make America great.”
Trump has no politics beyond individual personal grievance. He doesn’t care what you believe, unless you insult him specifically and personally, because he has no beliefs of his own beyond “greed and power are everything” and “I am the bestest boy ever, yes I am, yes I am.” You can join every organization in the world with Socialist in its name and he won’t even notice, but if you wear a shirt reading “Trump is a diaper-wearing loser,” he will dedicate part of his tiny shriveled lizard brain to hating you forever.
Regardless of the (de-)merits of DSA, anyone such as the OP who is worried about getting on some shit list needs to read this post:
The moment you find yourself worrying about getting on a shit list is the moment the terrorists have won. Or at least won their battle to own you. Don’t let them do that.
The DSA doesn’t run candidates that spoil elections, unlike the Green Party. They grew in size following the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign. Membership peaked and plateaued in 2021 and declined thereafter. As normies drifted away, strident members gained greater power within the organization: in 2023 a greater share of Marxists and revolutionary socialists were appointed to the National Political Committee.
I am personally unthrilled with the DSA’s foreign policy following the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Noah Smith argued a year ago that Western Leftists have Lost the Plot. The views of Noah Smith are not dispositive, but they deserve consideration.
Which wing of the left of center is best positioned to oppose fascism and support America’s 240 year experiment with democracy? Hard to say, but in this context a related question might be, “Which publications are worth supporting with a subscription”? If you are somewhat dubious about Jacobin or think that it compares poorly to The Nation, The New Republic, The American Prospect, or the Washington Monthly, then you might want to vear away from the DSA. If you like the Jacobin and oppose spoilers like the Green Party, then perhaps your voice inside the DSA might be a constructive one.
Would joining the Socialist Party just be painting a target on my back for Trump? Would I be subject to harassment and persecution (or prosecution) from Trump and his goons? I also support organizations like Black Lives Matter, Color of Change and the NAACP. Is that also going to bring me unwanted attention from fascist Trump?
You started the same thread 4 weeks ago. See
I doubt the actual answer has changed since then.
I’m sure our knowledge of the future hasn’t
You’ll be fine.
During the First World War, the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, was put on the Attorney-General’s list of subversive organizations. If you were a member of an organization on that list, you were very unlikely to be drafted, because, well, subversive.
Rumour or perhaps urban legend has it that the IWW remained on the list well into the Vietnam war, and so for the nominal initiation fee of $2 and monthly dues of $2, one could avoid being drafted. So joining the DSA might bring an advantage in the near future.
Ninety percent of Trumpism is the reality that nobody cares about you. “You” meaning most individuals in the county. People have resented that reality for a long time. Somehow Trump, in classic con man style, manged to convey a sense that he cared, even though to outsiders he obviously cares less about you than any human being ever has.
Trump manifests this lack of caring in virtually every act he takes and every word he speaks, and this lack has been especially apparent since the election. Today’s scrapping of a bipartisan budget bill and the threat of closing down the government over Christmas is proof.
Socialists? Trump doesn’t even know the word. Go join any organization with socialist in the title. Trump doesn’t care about you. Since we live in an upside-down world, doing so might please him. Remember that USSR stood for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Trump is a Russian asset, so he may buddy up to you if you explain the connection. Sad to say, you can’t get even get arrested any more for being a socialist.