Photograph Source: Cory Doctorow – CC BY-SA 2.0

Something I’ve found mysterious, since joining the Democratic Socialists of America, is that the national leadership seems wildly out of step with the membership as a whole. Admittedly, this belief rests on an assumption on my part, because the national leadership has opposed non-binding polls of its membership, but I think it’s reasonable. As someone who believes in DSA’s big-tent, internally-democratic model, I’d like to figure out the reasons for its failure.

For context, one of the organization’s two co-chairs belongs to the Red Star caucus, which identifies as Marxist Leninist. The label, in case readers are unfamiliar, refers to those who support Stalinism and its authoritarian, descendant ideologies, like Maoism. In contrast, my guess is the average member of DSA, for better or worse, is essentially a New Deal Democrat. They were........

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