What do you get when you combine a large dose of idealism with a dollop of cynicism?
You get the political leadership of Minneapolis.
I’ve written often, in Minneapolis Times and elsewhere, about the corrosive influence on our city of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). But tempting as it sometimes is, I can’t work up much animus towards DSA members. I’ve had conversations with a dozen or more in recent years. Pretty much without exception they strike me as good people. They want everyone to be treated fairly and well, regardless of any category they might be part of. They want serious attention paid to the planet’s most serious problem: climate change. They want the vast gap between rich and poor to be far less vast. They want everyone, including the very wealthy, to pay their fair share of the costs of a good and just society. Sometimes they indulge in magical thinking about how we can bring about these things, but they are the right things.
Do recall the challenge that Bernie Sanders issued to his disappointed followers after his failed bid for the presidential nomination in 2016: He urged them to re-channel their idealism and their energy, to go back home and run for school boards, county commissions, city councils. Get your foot in the door, he told them, and continue the work.
And his campaign gave them a powerful tool to do just that: political organizing skills. (It’s beyond the scope of this essay, but in Minneapolis about 1,000 people decide who will hold the elective offices that represent 435,000 people. Superb political organization can and does win the day.)
Bernie forgot to tell his followers that to lead important enterprises it’s good first to gain experience that enables one to learn something about leadership, about how to achieve durable results, how to define and measure outcomes, how to exact accountability from oneself and others.
It’s not the fault of young followers of Bernie (who I believe will be judged well by history) that they did not know these things. But a decade later we might wish that those who actually achieved elected office would, now that they are at least in their 30s, have mastered some of this. If you think our city’s current DSA-influenced leadership has done so, I can refer you to any number of council meetings and actions that show otherwise.
Here’s where we have to confront that dollop of cynicism. In my experience, at least, ordinary DSA members are not cynical. They simply want to do what they can to build a better society.
DSA leaders and strategists? Not so much. The general strategy of DSA cannot be regarded as other than cynical. The best expression of this is the carefully constructed myth that DSA is not a political party; it is some kind of benign nonprofit. Which, as a legal proposition, is true. DSA is incorporated as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Just a benign do-gooder organization, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, or the Phillis Wheatley Center or the Audubon Society.
But reflect on this: why is DSA a nonprofit?
DSA claims a national membership of about 95,000. That’s a lot of people, but it’s about three-one hundredths of a percent of the nation’s population. Even if theirs were the soundest ideas imaginable for public policy, they simply lack the numbers to effectuate their policies.
But theirs are not the soundest public policy ideas imaginable. Far from it. Here’s a list of their policy positions, drawn verbatim from the DSA national platform:
- Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually toward zero
- End investment in police training or facility renovations
- End all misdemeanor offenses, accounting for 80% of total court dockets, reduce jail churn by reducing arrests and cut funding to prosecutor’s office
- A new political order through a second constitutional convention to write the founding documents of a new socialist democracy
- Free all people from involuntary confinement
- Disarm law enforcement officers, including the police and private security
- Social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure
- Immediately withdraw from NATO
- Abolish USAID, NED, Voice of America and other governmental agencies that cynically disguise capitalist control as aid and journalism
- Close all US foreign military bases
Moreover, while DSA denies being a political party, in their own foundational documents they state that “DSA wants to be independent of the Democratic and Republican Parties and present a third alternative to both major parties.”
So, isn’t it more than a little cynical for a rival of the Democratic party to run people for office as Democrats?
(Hint: Yes. It is.)
DSA runs people for office as Democrats because they know they can’t win election under the banner of DSA. They will not win elections on a platform of no cops, no prisons, no private ownership.
But, once elected as Democrats, they govern as DSA. Taking just the anti-police part of their platform, we see this with great clarity in the Minneapolis City Council majority. We are having too much success hiring new cops? Then let’s cut the recruitment budget. We’re doing too well in reducing crime? Then let’s knock out the top two levels of public safety leadership.
We could subject the decline of downtown property values (resulting, of course, in higher property taxes for homeowners and renters) to similar analysis. When did you last hear any member of the current city council majority express any concern about lower commercial property values or offer any solutions? You’ve not heard this? Neither have I.
So that’s the paradox. Idealistic DSA members, cynical leaders setting the grand strategy.
Since the election of 2017 we Minneapolis voters have been falling for it. A little less so in the 2025 election, although DSA still has a majority, albeit now razor thin. Maybe we’ll have caught on completely by the next election.
DSA and MAGA are birds of a feather. Both espouse unrealistic and harmful ideologies while co-opting the infrastructure of the ‘host’ parties with whom they caucus.
The DFL would do Minnesotans a huge favor by not allowing them to caucus in their party. We don’t need greater bifurcation in our political landscape with politicians bell-bent on erase 250 years of democracy. Some of the DSA’s positions appeal to everyday Americans. But several of their positions simply cause strife and turmoil.
Oust them now, DFL leaders!
I could not confirm the list of alleged DSA platform positions in this post. Searching “DSA platform” and variants yields a detailed list of positions from 2024 which are in direct contradicition with many of the positions attributed to DSA here. For example there is discussion of police reform but not of police abolition. I did find a statement advocating withdrawal from NATO in a description of an international meeting of DSA representatives in Europe in 2021 together with a quite rational argument in favor of the position (with which I disagree). However that position does not appear in the 2024 platform.
If the opponents of the DSA wish to attack DSA positions, which are here claimed to be ‘verbatim’ from DSA documents then they should provide detailed references. In a large diverse organization which is internally democratic there will certainly be various policy positions advocated in organization publications which have not been adopted by the organization as a whole. Several organizations have been cherry picking DSA publications to find statements with which many Americans are likely to disagree. I have the impression that that is what is happening here. Perhaps that is somewhat cynical?
Woods Halley
Dr. Halley,
What I and others have cited are drawn directly from, and quoted at length and verbatim, from national DSA platform. No cherry picking here.
Of course there are many things in DSA platform with which most Democrats would agree, but our argument does not require us to republish these; we are only criticizing the many DSA policies with which we and most Democrats and indeed most Americans would not agree.
In any event, local elected officials, who may adopt positions different in nuance, at least, from official DSA platform, whether out of conviction or expedience, cannot distance themselves from DSA stances, any more than we “real” Democrats can distance ourselves from our own party’s positions, even though individually we may disagree with some of them.
PS: Here is the citation you requested:
2 https://www.dsausa.org/dsa-political-platform-from-2021-convention/
The link supplied refers in its title to a 2021 convention- 5 years ago. But clicking on it, I again couldn’t find most of the positions which are indicated to be “their policy positions, drawn verbatim from the DSA national platform:”
Perhaps the list was prepared using AI?
Woods Halley
Happy to hear about this project between these two and Mpls Times. I love it. I sent a little bit of money to support the effort. Next time, maybe can add Denver, CO into the mix too. They are doing some great things there now, and have really turned the corner.
Minneapolis Food for Thought
Organized by Local Media Foundation
https://givebutter.com/mplsfoodforthought
Lead in..
“David Therkelsen and Terry White are hitting the road — and they need your help. Over ten days, they’ll travel to Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco to do the kind of on-the-ground reporting that doesn’t happen over Zoom: talking to residents, business owners, and city officials to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and why. Minneapolis is at a crossroads. The debates we’re having right now — about public safety, housing, homelessness, and small business survival — aren’t unique to us….”
https://givebutter.com/mplsfoodforthought
I generally agree that DSA members, individually are good people with whom I share a common cause on many issues. But reading that list of DSA positions, I’m struck by how off-the-charts bonkers it is–and very similar to positions you’d find at any MAGA rally. Leave Nato? End USAID? Good grief. Might as well add “align the US with Putin and help fight the western warmongers who are supporting the Nazi’s in Ukraine.”
Aside from these positions, with which I seriously disagree, my complaint with DSA has been about tone: about the way the DSA faction so resembles the MAGA world. Mean, anger always dialed up to 11, combined with a tendency to demonize all opponents, especially Democrats who deviate even slightly with their stances. (Their pure hatred of Jacob Frey is almost frightening—and almost indistinguishable from vicious hatred of same expressed by Trump and his minions.)
I have hoped that the messy process of governance would soften DSA council members; and there is some evidence of that, occasionally. But not enough, yet.
All so true…AND this, especially…
(Their pure hatred of Jacob Frey is almost frightening—and almost indistinguishable from vicious hatred of same expressed by Trump and his minions.)
Many on this DSA/ Wonsley voting block had never held regular jobs before, outside of being activists and working on politcal campaigns, so they had little real life WORK experience.
They do not know this…but once they leave Mpls and try to get work elsewhere, their voting records and the conduct around all of that, is going to hurt them, personally, and for years, because most of this is a matter of public record…for viewing.
They do not know this… yet.. because they are too inexperienced to see that so much of what they do, the performances and attention seeking behaviors, and the things they chose to put effort too, and the vast majority of critical tasks they have simply chosen NOT to learn about or put any time too, well, ALL of this is completely inappropriate and destructive when holding down a job as a very well paid representative for thousands of people, and in a city of almost 1/2 a million. They are blowing it, for the city, and themselves.
“Just a benign do-gooder organization, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, or the Phillis Wheatley Center or the Audubon Society.”
Not a single one of those 3 organizations you listed is a 501(c)(4)
Good point. This is, in fact, part of DSA’s cynical deception. They don’t define themselves according to the fine points of the internal revenue code, they just call themselves a nonprofit. Which conjures images of good human services organizations such as those I mentioned.
Since you brought it up, I even am skeptical of their (c)(4) designation. Unlike (c)(3)s, they can engage in significant political activities, but even there it must be less than 50% of their total activity. So what do they do with the “non-political” 51% of their work?
The 501(c)(4) designation is very broad and I agree it could use reform, but by no means is the DSA the only group in this designation. Other examples of 501(c)(4) organizations are the National Rifle Association, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, AARP, Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, etc.
So if you want to compare DSA to similar groups based on tax status, compare them to those. Not Big Brother Big Sister lol
Nick, I believe I was clear in my earlier reply to you. My point is that calling themselves a nonprofit, without clarity that they are a lobbying nonprofit, is part of DSA’s cynical deception. They allow others to believe they are a benign do-gooder nonprofit, like Big Brothers Big Sisters. Neither Planned Parenthood nor NRA leave any doubt about who they are and what they stand for. DSA, in contrast, seems to think ambiguity is their friend; the less clear it is what they stand for the more people they’ll elect to office.
Based solely on the organization’s name, I’d wager that the Democratic Socialists of America advocate for socialism, specifically in America. Doesn’t seem like they are trying to be ambiguous.
Nick, then you are not paying attention. Indeed, their name is unambiguous. But they don’t use their name when running for office, they hide behind the name of a different political party.
I call that cynical opportunism. What do you call it?
btw, Robin Wonsley, with whom I agree with on almost nothing, at least has the integrity to run as a DSA member. The rest all hide.
Another example, the first time Aurin Chowdhury ran it was under the banner of DSA. Having won by a large margin, on her second run she ran under the DFL banner with no perceived significant opposition.
They are awful
What’s interesting about the DSA is that a few of their platform items align with Trump and populist Republicans:
-Immediately withdraw from NATO
-Abolish USAID, NED, Voice of America and other governmental agencies that cynically disguise capitalist control as aid and journalism
-Close all US foreign military bases
Trump has made more “progress” on these 3 items than any other president in history. Tariffs were also a popular tool of the far left/progressive platforms of yore, and Trump has adopted them joyfully.
As far as cynicism, yes, the DSA is cynical to parasitically graft itself into the Democratic party. But it also understands how power works and that the two party system is not going away. Far-right activists have taken over the Republican primary and caucus bases, too.
Extremists are people who generally have the time and passion to do what’s necessary to seize control of political power.
A more sane and rational “middle of the road” party can’t form because the middle 60% of the US population does not have the time or energy or passion to form, sustain and drive a new political platform. These are normal people who work jobs and have kids and caregiving commitments. They do not have 20 hours per week to online propaganda commentary and caucus organizing.
Lastly, I’d say that like Republicans, the DSA is skeptical of power. DSA city council members in Minneapolis and St. Paul do not trust city staff or city bureaucratic expertise, and hence the allegations of bullying and toxicity. Maybe they’re right as we’ve seen no shortage of scandals big and small with city staff. In that regard, the DSA is once again similar to the far right, and maybe much of the center-right Republican party.
If a key goal of the “Chugleys,” in getting on to the Council, ( this Wonsley controlled DSA voting block) was to attempt to de stabilize the MPD, they certainly have mastered that.
In terms of knowing, or LEARNING, how best to serve, support, and even manage a city, which would require developing the competencies, about all kinds of things, but particularly about money, AND how to be good stewards and representatives for MORE, they seem to have little interest in ANY of that.
https://minneapolistimes.com/foot-dragging-by-the-council-equates-to-defunding-the-police/#comment-1376
https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/we-won-the-move-minneapolis-council-member-celebrates-after-community-thwarts-plans-for-old-3rd-precinct-site/
CM Wonsley, the leader of this DSA voting block, had done everything she could, as an aggressive proponent for abolishing the police, to try to stop the 3rd Precinct Police Station from coming back into any of the 26 neighborhoods it served.
She and her voting block, the 3 Chs, et all, would do this SAME thing, as DSA endorsed/ aligned CMs, regardless of what city they landed in. Mpls has simply been an easy target for them.
Maybe reflect on why there was space for the DSA to grow, not only here in Minneapolis, but throughout the country. Hint: look at public polling about Dems or the DFL. It’s abysmal. Dem and DFL leadership have allowed the brand to collapse and are not delivering results to ordinary people. And none of that has anything to do with the DSA. A party can’t fix their problems by relentlessly complaining about the tactics and strategies of other political movements.
While membership changes yearly, the DSA, TODAY, is primary a white org/ party, although they work hard to assert that THEY speak for, and are the arbitrators for POC.
The truth, not enough POC want to join up, ( or they WOULD HAVE). They don’t see their interests aligning with the DSA platform, ( that platform which is accurately spelled out in this piece). That is WHY the DSA will likely never attempt to transition, honestly, in to a 3rd political party. There is not enough support for what they are about.
The more know of ALL the critical details in the DSA platform, for people of all hues and backgrounds, it is usually a hard NO.
“Based on a 2021 membership survey, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is predominantly white, with 85% of respondents identifying as white, 9% as Hispanic, and 4% as Black. While the organization has historically been, and remains, majority-white, it has seen an increase in diversity among younger cohorts and a rise in Hispanic and Asian membership. “
Well, at three-hundredths of a percent of the population they haven’t grown all THAT much. But you will get no argument from me that the Democratic Party has plenty of dysfunction of its own. As does the Republican Party for that matter.
But the Dems (and the Republicans) at least don’t hide behind somebody else’s name and pretend to be something they are not. That was my argument.