DSA members in their own words

The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America often defines itself by running against the machine. That was the primary way then-Assembly candidate Zohran Mamdani differentiated himself from Aravella Simotas, the well-liked progressive lawmaker he unseated in Astoria in 2020. “Mamdani, a recent transplant to the borough, still faces an uphill battle in challenging her from the left,” our Rebecca C. Lewis wrote at the time. “Based on their policy platforms, very little seems to separate Simotas and Mamdani.” Simotas was backed by the Queens County Democratic Party, and Mamdani was her first primary challenge in 10 years. 

They may challenge the various manifestations of machine politics in New York City, but if you talk with DSA members, you’ll quickly see how much they are acting like a machine themselves – and a highly effective one. Here are some anonymous musings from several members of the New York City chapter on DSA culture, elected officials and time commitments. 

On DSA culture

“There’s a funny conversation that comes up every year about: Is DSA a political machine? The thing it has in common with old political machines is that it turns people with no political experience and new to the city or politics or both, and it does connect them to their communities and communal purpose in a way that not much else does.”

“My romantic life is not involved with DSA, which I personally think is a good thing.”

“We’re becoming more like one of the political parties or clubs of old, partly by intention. There are some people in DSA who are like, we should look like the Portuguese Socialist Party or whatever. But some of it is organic, like there’s a DSA Run Club chat that is always going.”

“It feels like high school again. There’s a lot of awkward nerds who mean well and also desperately want to be popular to the org membership.”

“I think DSA fills a hole in civic life that used to be filled by churches and union halls. It creates a community of shared belief where people are celebrated for having faith and values, and for getting active in the world to spread and realize that vision.”

On internal politics

“Some caucuses in DSA are just like one person in their basement.” 

“There’s what you see on the outside and there’s what happens on the inside. While the SIOs and DSA leaders purport to work as a bloc and have strong relationships, there’s often a lot of tension, people feeling very territorial about overlapping areas and having real personal clashes with each other because of their own agendas and also a forced fidelity to the org that sometimes doesn’t align with the needs on the ground of the district.”

“The real divide in the left is whether or not we are actually trying to win. For a long time, people assumed it was impossible and were content to criticize from the sidelines.”

“DSA must have a reckoning with how successful we have been in mobilizing a truly multiracial working class. Although the WFP holds less electoral muscle, it must be said they have done a better job of making their party more of a reflection of what NYC looks like.”

On the commitment

“I lost an election and felt bad about it and just needed a break. I still did the socialist speed dating, but I took a year, year and a half, to lower my engagement. I was doing 20 hours of DSA work a week on top of my job, and I just needed to take a break.”

“To be that active, you need a laptop-class job. Most people in DSA have that. Like technically you work 40 hours a week, but you actually work 15 hours a week for your job and the rest is for DSA.”

On Zohran Mamdani

“We’re generally really good about time. Like, we often cut people off when they go over time, including elected officials, and once, including Zohran during convention.”

“Zohran has great values, but it also feels that it is often my way or the highway, and his agenda comes before anything and everyone else. He would reach out to many colleagues to ask for things and then when folks would reach out to ask for this or that, it’s hard to get to him.”

“I think the elephant in the room in DSA circles now that we have secured our biggest electoral victory perhaps ever, how are we going to hold Zohran to account? AOC has fallen out of favor with some rank-and-file members, precisely because many fear she strayed too far from our core principles. It would be a big loss if the same happened with the mayor.”