Perhaps the most amusing thing about this election cycle is that Democrats have been under the assumption that anti-Trump sentiment will be enough to win them the majority in Congress in November. They haven’t quite figured out that they have internal issues that are getting in the way of their plans.
While the establishment likely knows that socialist-aligned candidates aren’t as electable as the slightly-less-crazy leftist candidates, but they haven’t handled the socialist insurgency well at all, and they don’t seem to realize just how bad that will hurt them in November.
First up, there was Bill Maher, the HBO host who has spent years mocking the American right, recently said that his vote in 2028 is up for grabs. "Yes, my vote is in play because it can't be Trump running," Maher said. "So I'm not living in Communist America. I mean, I know the talking point is that 'Well, it's not communism, it's socialism.' Okay, I've read the quotes from the DSA platform from their own mouths. Don't tell me I'm not seeing what I am seeing. And DSA, again, they say things like, you know, take over of key industries, government, that's communism."
I said before that this kind of thing doesn't happen in a vacuum. Sure enough, Maher isn't alone.
Van Jones, the former Obama czar, longtime CNN commentator and self-described lifelong leftist, publicly broke with fellow Democrats this week. Jones argued that Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates and their agenda are "regressive" rather than “progressive” and warned that the party's drift toward socialism, anti-police positions, and hostility toward Israel is alienating centrist voters and creating real electoral risk.
Jones pushed back hard on Democrats who wave away DSA-aligned primary wins as evidence the party is simply a "big tent."
He described himself as someone committed to criminal justice reform, a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education, and clean air and water. He said he's tired of being told "to be a progressive, I... must swear allegiance to crazy ideas."
Supporting Hamas, calling for the abolition of police, prisons, and borders, and celebrating violence against Israeli civilians are not progressive positions, Jones argued. They're regressive ones. He contrasted that with universal healthcare, free education, and clean air and water, calling those genuinely progressive goals and insisting the two categories aren't equivalent.
Related: Things Just Got So Much Worse for the Democrats
Jones pointed out that extremists are trying to smuggle "backwards" proposals into the party while assuming mainstream Democrats are too distracted fighting Trump and their own establishment to notice. He sure does have a point, and voters see what's happening, he warned.
Jones reached for a memorable image, accusing far-left activists of being "party poopers" who spoil the party's big-tent punch bowl while insisting their contribution is harmless.
I'm tired of being told that, to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas.
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) July 18, 2026
I'm a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I'm rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education,… pic.twitter.com/foPRXip7fb
Obviously, DSA-aligned candidates rarely admit to being communists in public, but as Maher pointed out, we know what their policies mean. And they run as Democrats because a third-party run under that label would lose badly. Capturing Democratic nominations is their most realistic path to power, and they know it.
The public breaks by Jones and Maher matter for a very simple reason. They prove even center-left voters are turned off by the socialist shift. If they’re turned off, you better believe a significant share of independent voters will be, too.
Remember how I said that Democrats are underperforming in generic ballot polling this year despite widespread voter dissatisfaction with Donald Trump? This is why. The far-left shift is a big factor in that underperformance, and the establishment is too afraid to do anything about it, and it may be too late now.
Democrats are counting on winning the majority this year, but the socialist insurgency is going to hurt them more than they realize.
