How much of socialism’s current rise in the United States can be attributed to the education system?
According to Daniel Di Martino, a Venezuelan immigrant, economist, and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, it deserves at least part of the blame. Public education often fails to teach students basic civic concepts, including the important difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic, making an ideology like 'democratic socialism,' appealing. Meanwhile, government subsidies for higher education have driven up college costs and incentivized students to pursue expensive degrees with little to no economic value.
The result is an increasing number of frustrated young people who were promised more from the world than they are receiving.
.@DanielDiMartino tells @dbongino that the education system is partially responsible for the rise of socialism:
— Manhattan Institute (@ManhattanInst) August 13, 2026
"Say you got a PhD, and then now you're making $50,000 a year, so you think you're underperforming—which is true for having a PhD, and it's certainly going to be true… pic.twitter.com/B5OBSXRczl
"Now, what's curious about us in America is that it's not the poor who are voting for the socialists, Dan. It's actually the upper middle class," Di Martino said. "It's the people who have the most to lose from socialism. It's the people who have assets, who have wealth, who are voting for this. If you see the polling, I don't know if you follow like Vote Hub and things like that. They divide the precincts. They did it in Wisconsin and Michigan, and they see it's high education, low income people for their age. Meaning, I would say people who underperformed what they expected."
"Like say you got a PhD, and then now you're making $50,000 a year. So you think you're underperforming, which is true for having a PhD. And it's certainly going to be true if your PhD is in gender sciences. So I feel like we, our own education system [is at fault], not just because it indoctrinates people, but also because it allows people to borrow money from the government to get useless degrees that then underperform."
"We have set up the young Americans for voting for socialists by giving them this system."
As with so many problems across the country, we can trace this path back to an ever-expanding government. Government policy is responsible for much of the rising cost of the essentials on everyone’s mind, including housing, healthcare, and higher education. It also incentivizes poor decisions, especially in education, by steering people toward spending they might not otherwise choose.
This makes the solution a twofold: stop letting government subsidize industries that drive up prices in the first place, and stop letting it pick winners and losers in what should otherwise be a free market. Maybe if we spent more time doing that rather than assuming government could fix all of our problems, we would not be dealing with the ever-steady rise of socialism.
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