Will Democratic Socialism Rhetoric Reduce The Margin of Trump’s Defeat?

By Donald A. Collins | 17 August 2026
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

The term Democratic Socialist which identifies the progressive left of the Democratic Party doesn’t define the real meaning of socialism.

The term is hard to define but many definitions are offered here.

In the midterms Republicans will use that label to claim the Democrats are communists, Jihadists or socialists proves they simply don’t understand or admit the true definition of socialism.

Anytime communism takes over of course the leaders are dictators. The same is true with total socialism, which when fully implemented and carried to extremes also creates authoritarianism. History proves neither ideology can avoid that end.

Watching the two races for the Democratic candidates for US Senate in Michigan and Governor in Wisconsin, we could see tremendous enthusiasm for the two candidates who represented the Democratic Socialist position.

While in Michigan Abdu El-Sayed did not use the Democratic Socialists label, he clearly represented their views. Haley Stevens, his opponent, raised $60 million – vs. under $10 million for El-Sayed – and had strong endorsements from moderate Democratic leaders but lost by a slim margin.

In Wisconsin the moderate Democratic Gubernatorial candidate David Crowley won by a very slim margin over the democratic socialist a candidate Francesca Hong but again both sides promised cooperation in an effort to win in the midterms.

The main point the media is now making is the terrific Democratic enthusiasm generated for change and the size of the democratic votes in both the above cases suggesting this will carry on to the midterms regardless of socialist labels from the GOP.

Trump is so low in the polls as he did not live up to any promises made in his 2024 election and then he had the idiocy to start a war with Iran that had no purpose or plan.

We understand that democracies like the United States all have elements of socialism in their governance because such democracies believe in having some government services performed by its employes trained to do key tasks for which profit is not required only efficiency such as postal services, or FEMA or offering universal healthcare.

The 60% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and many others in critical need are now being squeezed and ignored by many of Trump’s billionaires who, due to the 2010 Citizens United law, can give their candidates unlimited donations.

In fact, many democratic nations, including the UK, have government provide national health insurance as many liberal US leaders such as Senator Benie Sanders have advocated for for years.

An 8/11 NY Times article “He’s Not a Democrat. Democrats Love Him Anyway” starts as follows:

“The Senate candidate Dan Osborn wants to be crystal clear that he is not a Democrat. No way. No thank you. Yes, he is running to unseat the Republican Pete Ricketts in Nebraska. And, yes, he has much to say about how President Trump’s policies are hurting Nebraskans. Not to mention how shamefully the Republican-led Congress is failing to stand up to the executive branch. But Mr. Osborn is a “Lifelong Independent” — as his campaign signs clearly proclaim — and when folks ask why, he has a simple explanation.

“I don’t like either party,” he told me over pizza and beer recently, after a morning of campaigning. “I think they both kind of suck.” His goal, as Mr. Osborn tells it, is to infiltrate the Senate and start breaking the unhealthy two-party death grip on the system.

Given this pox-on-both-their-houses posture, it might seem strange that the Nebraska Democratic Party is backing Mr. Osborn’s candidacy, that national Democrats have given him their tacit blessing and that his campaign events tend to be packed with more die-hard Democrats than fence-sitting unaffiliateds. Strange, maybe. But also smart.”

Read the article here.

A majority of US voters certainly have benefited greatly from having Social Security since Roosevelt established it in August 1935.

There are many other reforms which a minority of Democratic Socialists could help vote to limit. Examples: limit the terms of Supreme Court justices or Congress, or getting rid of Citizens United, which allowed the billionaires to put unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns.

Republicans will try to bamboozle voters into thinking that Trump is doing just fine with affordability, which he flunked entirely, and now this war with Iran, needs to be stopped.

Trump is certainly not going to do it. How can it be stopped? My ideas in another op ed.

Putting thousands of our military in jeopardy in the Middle East along with our allies there and depleting our military supplies, spending billions and endangering our strategic positions with China, Russia and other aspirant US opponents everywhere underlines the folly of Trump following Netanyahu’s urging to start the Iran war.

Trump has deferred to Putin, failed to give Ukraine the full support it should have and destroyed our long-standing NATO relationship with our European allies.

Too many American voters don’t understand the implications of Trump’s foreign policy, but they do understand rising prices, growing inflation, and the all-round deterioration of their own lifestyle. The fact that he sent his untrained ICE troops into American cities to intimidate where they have mistreated and murdered citizens while picking up aliens, 90% of whom are attempting to become U.S. citizens, who have no criminal records and are working in America paying taxes and providing labor that is needed in many critical areas.

Meantime, President T rump’s main preoccupations seem to be building a ballroom on the White House, getting his name restored to the Kennedy Center or bringing false lawsuit attacks on his enemies, while lying about his handling of the algae ridden Reflecting Pool.

Will a significant number of midterm voters accept the GOP definition of Democratic Socialism mentioned above? Definitely not! Change is in the air and the Democratic Party has a big enough tent to include differences of opinion which can help the US solve and recover from the disasters of the Trump era. Proof comes with voting on November 3rd.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Los Angeles, CA, has spent over 60 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of 17 books: “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”, “Trump–unrestrained dangerous liar!”, “Our Ethnic Mix May Save Us!” and “Trump will be gone before November 3, 2026!”.

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