The Democratic Party primary election for U.S. Senate in Michigan on August 4 is a big test for democratic socialism and could foretell the Left’s political course for the next generation.
To date, democratic socialists have defeated several incumbent, establishment, moderate Democrats in races for the U.S. House of Representatives in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and other states. Indeed, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are riding a winning streak.
But aside from Graham Platner’s triumph in Maine — though he could be on the verge of dropping out due to rape allegations — democratic socialists have not had much success winning seats in the U.S. Senate.
Whereas the U.S. House has the socialist Squad, which will be infused with many new democratic socialists next year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the lone democratic socialist in the U.S. Senate.
For the seat of retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), a moderate, conventional Democrat, Michigan voters will choose between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens.
Stevens, who currently holds a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, is the de facto choice of the mainstream Democratic Party. She earned her stripes in the Obama administration. She has been endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and touts a reasonable policy platform she calls the Michigan Hope Agenda.
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Stevens is a Blue Dog Democrat.
On the other hand, her opponent is a democratic socialist who claims he “will fight to build a government that works for you, not Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or their billionaire friends.”
El-Sayed “studied to be a doctor — but realized it was our broken politics that was making people sick.” His chief motto is: “life in Michigan shouldn’t be this hard — or this expensive.”
He has received endorsements from Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Our Revolution, and many other super-left socialist groups.
According to his campaign website, his policy platform is practically indistinguishable from the likes of Sanders, AOC, and the DSA.
El-Sayed favors a massive increase to the welfare state: universal childcare, universal pre-K, free college, Medicare for All, and more federal housing and rent programs.
Unapologetically, he advocates for packing the Supreme Court, abolishing the Senate filibuster, abolishing ICE, and granting mass amnesty “for those who are stuck in limbo in our current system.”
Naturally, he believes that “climate change” is a “dire global threat.” Thus, he favors “100% renewable energy” anchored “in massive investment in solar, wind, and battery storage, a modernized smart grid, and the energy efficiency upgrades that put money back in families’ pockets.”
Due to the incoming influx of automation and AI in the workplace, El-Sayed supports “income protection programs such as wage insurance and basic income.” In his infinite wisdom, he will also “develop clear ‘rules of the road’ for AI development.”
El-Sayed’s socialist solution to the housing crisis? “Require Big Tech companies like Airbnb and VRBO to pay special housing dislocation fees for the housing stock they occupy in local communities.”
You may be wondering how much this would cost and, more importantly, how it would be paid for.
On the former, the Green New Deal (GND), introduced by AOC in 2019, encompasses most of El-Sayed’s welfare wish list and the so-called green transition. According to the American Action Forum, the GND could cost $93 trillion.
To pay for this ambitious agenda, El-Sayed proposes confiscating more wealth from successful Americans. He wants to “tax billionaire wealth,” he says. But in the fine print, he reveals that he really intends to soak the middle-class with a bevy of tax hikes that hardworking Americans, not the billionaires, will mostly bear.
Bear in mind, aside from his awful policy stance, El-Sayed has welcomed his buddy Hasan Piker on the campaign trail.
The big question is not whether El-Sayed’s socialist policies will resonate with Michigan voters, but if his empathetic messaging and divisive rhetoric prevail.
Stevens is a pragmatic candidate who is not promising a bunch of free stuff to voters.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, is running a no-holds-barred campaign, spouting socialist slogans, and using grievance ideology to win the Democratic Party primary and perhaps become the second socialist in the U.S. Senate.
If democratic socialists gain a foothold in the U.S. Senate, the world’s greatest deliberative body, it would be one small step for democratic socialism, one giant leap for the prospect of tyranny in America.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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