Sep 17, 2026 · 31 min · 11 segments
Democratic socialism is certainly having a moment in U.S. politics. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership is at record levels. DSA- aligned candidates like Zohran Mamdani in New York…
Fran QuigleyHost
Jack QuigleyGuest
kind of a general starting point, but it's something that I don't, really know the correct answer to.
And there's been for 60 years plus there's been sentiment in America that socialism is communism and communism is the start of the end of the world.
So could you just explain how democratic socialists and people like Zoran differ from the image people have of like Stalin era communism?
And again, I think we have the caveat that I don't represent the DSA and I'm not running for office myself.
But I think that the answer is in the first word, right? The first word is democratic socialism.
And the abuses, excesses, and sometimes tragedies of communism did not derive from the economic system, which has substantial overlap with socialism.
We could You know, a political scientist and economist can argue the niceties of the very fine distinctions between the two that you could arguably draw.
And it is not a system that has any tolerance for dictatorship or repression or all the horrible, ugly things.
historically gross things that were characterized by the worst elements of communist dictatorships.
But the second word, socialism, does show that there is a commitment towards a reduction in the profiteering, if not a total elimination of the profiteering in our society from a capitalist perspective, especially profiteering on basic necessities like food, like water, like housing.
I'm going to hold up my book on religious socialism that I wrote a few years ago.
And you talk to folks from traditions of Christianity and Islam and Judaism, and they will say that The love thy neighbor dictates of all of those and other moral traditions lines up perfectly with socialism.
In fact, there's folks who say Christian socialism is a redundancy because that's exactly what Christianity should be and what the original Christians were.
If you look at the Acts of the Apostles, these were folks who held everything in common and did not truck with Christianity.
private property and exploitation of others the way that we do in the United States in 2026.
kind of going off of that, I guess the, we've talked a little bit about how Scandinavian socialism is a thing that has worked in other countries in certain industries.
kind of a general starting point, but it's something that I don't, really know the correct answer to.
And there's been for 60 years plus there's been sentiment in America that socialism is communism and communism is the start of the end of the world.
So could you just explain how democratic socialists and people like Zoran differ from the image people have of like Stalin era communism?
And again, I think we have the caveat that I don't represent the DSA and I'm not running for office myself.
But I think that the answer is in the first word, right? The first word is democratic socialism.
And the abuses, excesses, and sometimes tragedies of communism did not derive from the economic system, which has substantial overlap with socialism.
We could You know, a political scientist and economist can argue the niceties of the very fine distinctions between the two that you could arguably draw.
And it is not a system that has any tolerance for dictatorship or repression or all the horrible, ugly things.
historically gross things that were characterized by the worst elements of communist dictatorships.
But the second word, socialism, does show that there is a commitment towards a reduction in the profiteering, if not a total elimination of the profiteering in our society from a capitalist perspective, especially profiteering on basic necessities like food, like water, like housing.
I'm going to hold up my book on religious socialism that I wrote a few years ago.
And you talk to folks from traditions of Christianity and Islam and Judaism, and they will say that The love thy neighbor dictates of all of those and other moral traditions lines up perfectly with socialism.
In fact, there's folks who say Christian socialism is a redundancy because that's exactly what Christianity should be and what the original Christians were.
If you look at the Acts of the Apostles, these were folks who held everything in common and did not truck with Christianity.
private property and exploitation of others the way that we do in the United States in 2026.
kind of going off of that, I guess the, we've talked a little bit about how Scandinavian socialism is a thing that has worked in other countries in certain industries.
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