The Democratic Party is facing a familiar question: is it pushing out socialists, or has it already absorbed them?
Victor Davis Hanson says the answer is the latter. He points to Abdul El-Sayed, Bernie Sanders, Hakeem Jeffries, Gavin Newsom, Chuck Schumer and others as signs that the party has already moved onto the left's ground.
Hanson says Democrats have backed open borders, mass amnesty, police and prison cuts, DEI mandates, free health care, wealth taxes, deep defense cuts and reduced aid to Israel. He also says the Biden years tried to enact much of the same agenda.
He argues the pattern did not start with the newest socialist names. In his telling, Obama and Biden expanded government hiring by race, gender and sexual orientation, pushed health care overhauls, cut defense, backed sanctuary policies and tolerated antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Israel votes.
Hanson's bottom line: the socialist wing did not hijack the party. It walked into a house Democrats had already remodeled.
Why it matters: if that framing holds, the 2028 fight is not about whether Democrats go left. It is about how far left they already are. That leaves donors, moderates and suburban voters to decide whether the party's 'big tent' is really a cover for a hard-left agenda.