We already have socialism in the United States, at least according to Melat Kiros, a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate running for Congress in Colorado.
In a recent interview, she pulled the same sleight of hand that socialists always do, arguing that if Americans support public roads, taxpayer-funded first responders, and public education, then they already support socialism. She then claimed that the DSA and other progressives simply want to extend those same services to healthcare, housing, and higher education.
Public services like roads and first responders take up only a fraction of a government’s budget, and they do not require the state to control an entire industry through a sprawling bureaucracy. Socialists, by contrast, preach single-payer healthcare, higher education, and housing as if they can be run without a private market. But the level of responsibility required to manage housing, education, and healthcare is exponentially greater than what is needed for police, fire, or roads. And that even ignores the government’s own half-measures on housing and its long track record running public education, neither of which has left many people praising how well government does the job.
Melat Kiros: “We have socialism already. It’s in the roads we drive on, the schools we send our kids to, the fire stations we call upon. I’m just asking that we extend that security to our healthcare, to our housing, to our nutritional food, to our higher education so that we’re… pic.twitter.com/FmmWqWzLsR
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) June 28, 2026
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"Denver is not New York, but Denver actually rates socialism higher than we rate capitalism by four points. And, you know, when I talk to voters about what we're doing and why I'm a democratic socialist, I remind them that we have socialism already, right?" Kiros said. "It's in the roads that we drive on, it's in the schools we send our kids to, it's in the fire stations we call upon. I'm just asking that we extend that security to our healthcare, to our housing, to our nutritional food, to our higher education, so that we're actually meeting the basic needs of everyday working families in this country, so that we're not just getting by and surviving, so that we're actually thriving."
"And in the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth, we're not asking for much," she added.
But socialists have failed to deliver any meaningful benefit to Americans in public education, public housing, subsidized higher education, or federal health insurance. We do not see Americans clamoring to move into public housing or celebrating the rising costs of college and health insurance. These are all problems loudly denounced by public officials, whose solutions too often end up degrading quality even in the private market while driving prices higher.
Socialism is not just about providing a bare minimum service; it requires significantly expanded state power and the monopolization of the means of production under some government bureaucracy. The difference between public roads and government-run healthcare is not small, it is the difference between limited government and a dangerous concentration of power.
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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