The Poisonous Fruit Has Ripened

The rise of Democratic Socialism and the paradox of liberalism.

Recent democratic socialist victories in New York are a harbinger. Like an invasive species sent from the unproductive activist class, they have infiltrated politics at the highest levels of government. As if the creatures who have been ruling us weren’t bad enough, a fifty-year period of permitting socialist activists to take comfort in the academy is now yielding poisonous fruit.

And as we celebrate the 250th birthday of America, the democratic socialists openly wipe their asses with America’s founding documents. That is, until election season, when the wolves don sheep’s clothing.

Democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier stands out for both the volume and illiberal nature of her social media posts. She ran a now-deleted Twitter/X account (archived by the Wayback Machine). From 2018–2022, Chevalier celebrated “a world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police,” called for her comrades to “seize the means of production,” and wrote that “ALL PIGS EVERYWHERE ARE HARAM”. Chevalier also mocked interracial relationships by urging that brown men were “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.” And, of course, she openly supported the nationalization of industries.

Those who believe her views have evolved are fools. She merely tossed her Twitter account out of the Overton Window, took refuge in the Motte and Bailey, and ran for public office.

So, what should be done?

The answer, or current lack of any coherent answer, reveals a paradox about liberalism—at least the more cosmopolitan variety. That is, cosmopolitan liberalism claims a basic republican form of representative government—operating purportedly under the rule of law—and then bolts on basic rights, freedoms, and responsibilities meant not only to extend to everyone in its polity, but to everyone on earth. Hence: cosmopolitan.

But as we have argued in these pages, liberalism is asymmetrical when compared to other doctrines, such as socialism, which is imperialist. We need not just look at the handiwork of Lenin and Stalin to see why. We need only reread Darializa Avila Chevalier’s old social media posts to see exactly what she wants.

Or just read their platform.

Democratic socialism is just socialism. According to Marx, socialism is the step right before full communism in his upside-down dialectic. Not only is democracy in and of itself unsustainable, but the term is also just peanut butter around socialism’s bitter pill. That is, like the UK’s Fabians, the DSA are willing to use the democratic republican system to gain power. They will bide their time until they gain power sufficient to dismantle the system from within. They care not a jot about “basic rights, freedoms, and responsibilities.” They are takers. Of power. Of resources. Like the kissing cousins they claim to hate—the fascists—they are predators and parasites who view expropriation and violence as the highest goods.

So they are not like competitors in a marketplace of ideas, or constrained contestants operating within a republican framework. They are enemies. And they will not hesitate to tear down the liberal order that enables their rise.

As I set out last week in my discussion of Cooperatopia, democratic socialists are not interested in cooperation. They are interested in domination. This is why they are such strange bedfellows with Islamists. The only thing that binds their coalition together is a common hatred of Israel, the Jews, and the West. When this winning coalition overtook Iran in 1979, the Islamists ended up murdering all the socialists who helped them take power.

So, we must return to the question: What should be done?

We must inoculate ourselves through relentless sunlight and cultural renewal. Archive and contrast us with the radicals’ records—such as Chevalier’s calls to abolish borders, prisons, and police, and to seize production—against their polished campaigns. We must continue to reform education via choice and competition to instill classical liberal virtues: rationality, toleration bounded by reciprocity, individual responsibility, and stewardship. Vitally, we must propagate parallel institutions—homeschool networks, private academies, and voluntary associations—which can be accelerated without central mandates. And of course, we must promote underthrow narratives: functional alternatives in crypto, mutual aid, churches, and fraternal orders that demonstrate that cooperation is not only good but always outperforms domination.

Politically, we must enforce strict reciprocity and fundamental liberal laws without abandoning liberalism. Apply existing laws symmetrically against incitement, material support for violence, or foreign influence. Tie public office, funding, and ballot access to explicit commitments to liberal norms—renouncing expropriation and political violence—while preserving open debate. Strengthen federalism, term limits, transparency, and sound money reforms to starve their dependency machines. Federal and state subsidy of higher education must end. We must also decentralize authority so that capture in one jurisdiction invites competition from others, turning concentrated local failures into visible warnings. Of course, if we must operate according to ‘democracy,’ we must never allow partisans to launder our tax dollars through NGOs, or allow election rigging to continue in our midst.

Ultimately, though, we must apply political apoptosis through radical decentralization. Building parallel systems—tokenized communities, encrypted networks, and virtue-based fraternal/sororal societies—will embody liberal principles and enable people to vote with their UHauls more easily. Illiberal doctrines thrive on centralized hosts, after all. Distributed sovereignty lets failed subsystems wither as vitality flows to more resilient edges. Socialists enter as predators exploiting tolerance. A muscular liberal response is not to mirror them but to outcompete them: Unleash economic performance, renew our culture, enforce neutrality and accountability for stewarding the rule of law, and create an abundance of options for opting out.

On America’s 250th anniversary, we must recommit to the experimental nature of the Founders’ republic—not by conquest, but by making illiberal predation unviable. And if the republic falls, we must take our blueprint—the civilizational code—with which a Remnant can rebuild in the ashes.

We, that is, you and I, are the stewards of that code.