The Democratic Socialists of America hold a national convention every two years to elect their National Political Committee — the organization's governing body. In 2023, a coalition of communist caucuses took the majority of NPC seats away from the Socialist Majority Caucus.
Not progressive caucuses. Not left-leaning caucuses. Communist ones.
An analysis published by RedState lays out what happened inside the DSA's leadership pipeline. From 2021 to 2023, the Socialist Majority Caucus — aligned with the Green New Deal slate — held control of the NPC. They were the "reasonable" democratic socialists, the ones who talked about Medicare for All and climate policy in language that could survive a CNN segment. Then came the 2023 convention, and a bloc of openly communist caucuses swept them out. Over half of DSA leadership now identifies not as socialist, but as communist.
The distinction matters. Vincent Lima, the Political Committee Chair of the Socialist Majority Caucus, had framed the internal battle as one between "mass politics" and "sectarian" tendencies. The mass politics side wanted to win elections and build coalitions. The sectarian side wanted ideological purity. The sectarians won.
President Trump flagged this at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event. The people running the DSA, he said, "are not social democrats. These are hardcore, godless Communists. . . . This is the most serious threat to our Country since its existence."
CNN's Kaitlan Collins pushed back, insisting that "socialism, much less democratic socialism, is not communism." Which is a fine technical point — except that the DSA's own leadership no longer agrees with her. They're the ones calling themselves communists. Collins is correcting a label that the people wearing it have already updated.
This is the organization that has served as the political pipeline for deep-blue congressional districts. The DSA endorses candidates, provides volunteers, and runs get-out-the-vote operations in safe Democratic seats. Their endorsed candidates don't need to win over moderates — they just need to win primaries in districts where the general election is a formality. That's how you end up with elected officials whose ideological home base is an organization now run by people who look at the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and Cuba and think the problem was execution, not the premise.
The standard response from the communist wing, whenever someone points to the body count, is predictable: "That wasn't real communism." It's the ideological equivalent of a football team that's 0-and-history insisting the playbook is fine, the players just keep running the wrong routes. At some point the playbook is the problem.
What's useful about this moment is the honesty. For years, the DSA operated behind the softer label — "democratic socialist" — because it polled better. It sounded Scandinavian, not Soviet. It let sympathetic media treat the organization as a slightly left-of-center policy shop rather than what it was becoming. Now the internal politics have outrun the branding. The people in charge don't want to sound like Sweden. They want to sound like what they are.
The DSA runs candidates in safe Democratic districts. Over half of its governing body identifies as communist. And the Democratic Party still accepts their endorsements, their volunteers, and their infrastructure without so much as a awkward pause.
Social Security is socialism, they'll tell you. Your 401(k) holds Treasury bonds. We're all a little socialist. That's the pitch. But nobody's 401(k) requires a politburo.