Entryism, radicalization, and the erosion of American liberalism.

Lars Møller | July 24, 2026

From Wikimedia Commons: Socialism and Cholera (Horace Vernet, 1850)

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), boasting over 120,000 members and chapters across all 50 states, presents itself as a benign grassroots force operating within the Democratic Party to champion the working class. In reality, it functions as a Trojan horse for ideologies fundamentally antithetical to the constitutional republic. Far from a purely reformist tendency, the DSA embodies a dual subversive strategy: socialist-communist economic and cultural dismantling paired with Islamist-inflected identity politics that prioritizes transnational grievances over American cohesion.

 Recent electoral successes—exemplified by the ascent of a velvet propagandist like Zohran Mamdani and his slate of backed radicals—signal antiliberal infiltration rather than democratic vitality. This trend, if unchecked, portends the capture of one of America’s two major parties by forces contemptuous of liberal norms, individual liberty, and national sovereignty.

The history of the DSA is complex. It was founded in 1982 through the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), established in 1973 by Michael Harrington, and the New American Movement (NAM), which dates back to 1971.

DSOC emerged from a split in the old Socialist Party of America. Harrington, a prominent democratic socialist and author of The Other America (1962), sought to create a “left wing of the possible”—a pragmatic force of social democrats, trade unionists, and progressives dedicated to working within the Democrat party. The goal was realignment: pushing the party leftwards on economic issues while upholding basic liberal democratic norms such as free speech, competitive elections, and opposition to authoritarian communism. NAM, by comparison, brought in New Left activists from the 1960s movements. The 1982 merger was presented as a healing of Old Left and New Left divides under Harrington’s leadership, with an explicit commitment to democratic socialism rather than Marxist-Leninist vanguardism.

From its very inception, the DSA’s strategy (like that of DSOC) centered on entryism—operating as a pressure group inside the Democrat party to shift it towards social democracy while cordoning off communists and militant authoritarians. This “realignment” approach defined the organization’s first three decades, during which it remained relatively small and marginal.

However, the organization’s trajectory changed dramatically after Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign and Donald Trump’s election. Membership exploded from roughly........

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