Posted on 05/14/2026 9:27:06 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
...Exhaustion helps explain why ideas once treated as radioactive — socialism, in particular — are now discussed less as utopian fantasies and more as possible exits from a stalled national project.
For younger Americans, the appeal is less ideological romance than hunger... They face unaffordable rents, unstable work, medical debt and student loans that metastasize faster than they can be paid down...
When people can’t eat, can’t save and can’t think clearly, the abstractions of “free markets” lose their magic. Systems are judged not by theory but by outcomes. Right now, the outcomes for average Americans are brutal.
This is where figures like Zohran Mamdani come in...
To many on the right, he sounds like a revolutionary... But to many voters in New York City and beyond, he sounds less like a radical than someone asking why, in the richest country on earth, basic material security is still treated as a provocation.
Mamdani’s upset victory in New York has already begun to reverberate far beyond America’s cultural capital...His win has boosted membership in the Democratic Socialists of America and emboldened activists who see confirmation that openly socialist policies — especially on housing and affordability — can win elections...
Younger Americans are less committed to capitalism, not because they have read Marx, but because capitalism, as currently practiced, has written them out of the story...
“Drain the swamp” became a punchline, then a lie, then background noise. What was drained was not corruption but trust. Power did not disappear; it simply reorganized itself around loyalty tests and personal whim. Contracts flowed to friends. Grievance replaced governance. The market was supposed to be free. Instead, it has become selectively generous.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
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Sleepwalking?
More like running
crony capitalism is being sold as capitalism and corporatism runs amuck... the young only know what they have seen and our government is effing us all with fraud and favoritism.
trump needs to correct things quickly.
And the majority of these assclowns have no clue what socialism is in reality. Rude awakening dead ahead!
collectivism has many names
the result is always the same
the state is primary
the citizens are slaves
America started sleepwalking into Socialism in 1932 when the Welfare State was created. “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” The quote sometimes is attributed to Benjamin Franklin and sometimes that is disputed. The attribution doesn’t matter. Its true. Once the dam broke with the Welfare State and the majority started voting themselves money, Socialism was coming.
With enough abuse, control, and lack of hope, almost everyone can be trained to accept dependence and loss of autonomy.
When individuals or groups do it, it’s a crime.
When the state does it, somehow it’s a necessity (for the good of the collective, of course).
Do it with a smile like Mamdani.
It’s a siren call that works.
Socialism — as Marx described it — is an intermediate step to communism: the true objective of the Leftist .... and socialism, on a purely emotional level, sounds so appealing ... Appealing to those of the Democrat/Communist/now, Jihadist Party where emotion has replaced — nearly completely — rational thinking.
Sadly.
the generation that has to touch the hot stove
Yep. No sleepwalking. The woke have fully embraced Marxism driven by their hatred of Trump, capitalism, and fairness.
“When people can’t eat, can’t save and can’t think clearly, the abstractions of “free markets” lose their magic.”
The problem is that we are calling what we have now “free markets”. It is a heavily centrally planned plutocracy where Government picks winners and losers, decides what you should eat, where and how you should live, what you should drive, etc. A generation or two has seen the American people put dead last, and roadblocks in front of anything they want to do. Got your STEM degree? Cool, DC will PAY to flood in half of Hyderabad to take your job. Making some money on TikTok as a creator? Zuck runs screaming to Congress to kill the competitor killing Instagram. You lose your paycheck when Ellison is gifted the platform. You wanna grow food and sell it? Not so fast... the government will raid you.
Enough of this crap and THAT is what kids think is Free Markets and Capitalism. And they think the opposite is grinning warm Mamdani Socialism...
Maybe if we dumped the Crony Capitalism and Fascist arrangements like Trump getting us Government ownership in Intel, kids could start to learn what freedom is like.
These kids think they are Socialist, but an afternoon in Cuba would blow their mind at the freedom they wouldn’t have anymore.
The kids move to Socialism is a reflection of some deeper economic inequality problems that the establishment mockingly laughs at. The 1940s, 50s and even the 60s had a far better approach for normal people. Hell, even a lot of the 70s was still pretty good. But things have shifted. Today the government and their partners see us as nothing but a population to be strip mined and herded.
Umm...we’re already there by a country mile.
More like a death spiral.
And the majority of these assclowns also have no clue what Free Market Capitalism is either... in reality. It bears almost no resemblance to anything we get from DC today.
The concept of “too big to fail” did incalculable damage to America. It taught the Epstein class some bad lessons.
Without the cleansing of bankruptcy and complete failure, there is nothing to restrain them from the worst decisions.
Privatized profit and socialized failure is a hideous policy.
socialism is falsely presented as just an alternative economic system
with no mention of the loss of liberty
The Hill is certainly a tool for sleepwalking people into socialism. Even communism. I guess they are trying to hide behind that fact by pretending that they care.
Amen and hallelujah brother !
FDR was the worst president ever by a lot, big league.
He planted the seeds of our destruction with Social Security, known at the time to be a government funded benefit pyramid scheme deceptively marketed as a retirement account.
There is no lockbox, you don't have and account or any rights to the FICA taxes you paid per "Flemming v. Nestor", and now that demographics have inverted the pyramid, Social Security has already gone bankrupt, and collected payroll FICA taxes are around a trillion less than the disbursements.
Spending on social programs will soon make it necessary to drastically cut defense spending, and we won't be able to remain a superpower by 2050.
I would argue that LBJ was worse and took a bad system and made it worse. Plus, LBJ was just a vile pos.
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