Thirty years and 21 days ago, a Democrat named Bill Clinton looked the American people in the eye and declared that “the era of big government is over.”
Yesterday, the new mayor of New York City said the following:
To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this — no longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers’ lives.
[…]
We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.
Yup, this ain’t your daddy’s Democratic Party no mo’.
Welcome to the new Democratic Party. Its image is in the process of a radical PR makeover, transforming it from the party of the Clintons, Obamas, and Bidens to the one-stop shop for New Age socialism. They’ve traded triangulation for Trotsky — moderation for Marx — and centrism for collectivism.
It’s an audacious gamble for the Dems because it’s not at all clear that an unapologetically pro-socialist platform will work anywhere beyond bright-blue urban districts. (Even in ultra-liberal New York City, Mamdani only eked by with 50.78% of the vote.) What animates voters in AOC’s district won’t be nearly as galvanizing in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and other swing states.
More likely than not, it’ll cost ‘em more votes than it’ll gain.
The Democratic Party knows this, which is why they’ve been reluctant to fully embrace socialist policies. Instead, for most of the last 75 years, they’ve tried to inch their way towards socialism, favoring incremental gains over revolutionary lines in the sand, normalizing government intrusions in piecemeal fashion.
That’s because of the cold political reality: Given a choice, the American people don’t want the “warmth of collectivism.” They think of themselves as “rugged individuals” — free men with hopes and dreams — and they yearn to be the heroes of their own life story.
So to advance socialist policies, the Dems have relied on the frog-in-boiling-water approach: Each year, they raise the temperature juuust a few degrees, and by the time the poor frog realizes its stewing in boiling water, the die is already cast.
Honestly? It was a smart, effective strategy, and RINOs (Republican in Name Only) used it, too. (In fact, until the Trump years, what separated the two parties wasn’t that the Dems grew the government and the Republicans stubbornly held the line. Both parties grew the government! The difference was that Republicans grew it at a marginally slower pace.)
But after the Evil Orange Man scared them silly — and on the heels of all the lies and deception from the Biden years — American liberals have rejected incrementalism. Today, they’re clamoring for a revolutionary.
The Dems are demanding a Trump of their own.
Enter Zohran Mamdani, AOC, and the new generation of liberal leadership. Their fundamental mission isn’t good governance; they’re not here to compromise. They’re political navigators and ideological trailblazers — and socialism is their north star.
For deeply personal reasons, they’re gonna spend 2026 propagandizing for the socialist cause.
Which means, a PR race is now underway: Either the left will successfully redefine what socialism means to the American people — or it won’t.
If it succeeds, Mamdani’s victory will be recast as a watershed event in U.S. politics — the moment when socialism lost its stigma and became a virtue. And it’ll probably lead to a Blue Tsunami in the midterms, followed by a total Democratic takeover in 2028.
If conservatives are asleep at the wheel, the Dems will 100% prevail: America WILL become a socialist country by the end of this decade.
So who on the right will champion the cause of individualism?
My fear is that conservatives tend to have a “who moved my cheese” mentality, where we expect things to work like they did before. And until about 2020, conservatives could rely on talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh to carry our ideological water and fight the good fight.
For 30 years, Limbaugh led the PR charge against the left. El Rushbo so thoroughly demonized the word “liberal” that the Dems had to replace it with “progressive.” He was our firewall against socialism.
That memory still looms large. Even today, many conservatives still think our savior will arise from the pundit class. After all, William F. Buckley begat Rush Limbaugh — so surely, those who followed in Limbaugh’s footsteps would continue this legacy.
The trouble is that we don’t have a class of conservative pundits anymore.
In PR, the message and the medium are always intertwined, because the latter shapes the former. Financially, structurally, and cosmetically, they form a symbiotic relationship.
In Limbaugh’s day, conservative talk-show hosts attracted an audience by passionately defending conservative principles. Back then, we could rely on talk radio to cut through the noise, deliver the goods, and champion our cause.
Talk radio was the heartbeat of the conservative movement.
But that methodology doesn’t exist anymore. Radio’s economics have changed.
Now, we have YouTube “influencers” who rely on clicks, views, and controversies. They traffic in outrage, not ideology.
Stop expecting Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and the rest of today’s “influencers” to defend conservative principles! That’s not their job anymore!
They’re not pundits. They’re political shock jocks.
They’re paid to say things so controversial and so inflammatory that their content goes viral. That’s how they make money.
Which means, someone like Carlson can get more clicks — and make more money — by supporting Mamdani than by attacking him.
Hence the recent headlines:
Newsweek: Tucker Carlson Defends Zohran Mamdani
The Hill: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson Praise Mamdani Campaign
HuffPost: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson Offer Surprising Praise for Rising Dem Star
Daily Mail: Tucker Carlson Offers Surprise Praise for Dem NYC Mayor Candidate
Washington Times: Tucker Carlson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Praise NYC’s Zohran Mamdani for Debate Answer
Economic Times: Shock Rift in MAGA? Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene Praise Zohran Mamdani as Trump Fumes
If conservatives are awaiting salvation from the pundit class, socialism will win. Sorry folks: There’s no cavalry coming.
To win the war against socialism, we’ll need the buy-in from our grassroots army.
Social media. Conservative media. Pro-capitalism literature. The persuasive, personal testimonials of immigrants who fled “socialist paradises” like Cuba. Humor, good cheer, and (when appropriate) ridicule.
This can’t be a pundit-led fight. Our response must come from the bottom up.
Because right now, the liberals are vulnerable. They’re waist-deep in a rebrand, but opinions haven’t calcified. This means that the terms, phrases, and ideas are still malleable.
And if conservatives can redefine socialism as government-led tyranny, the loss of freedom, and economic suicide, our side will win.
And if we don’t, we won’t. Socialism will be rebranded as fairer and more virtuous than capitalism — because the rebranding of socialism requires the vilification of capitalism.
You can’t have one without the other: The more we hate capitalism, the more we’ll view socialism as the “solution.”
But capitalism is freedom. It’s free people — trading freely — in accordance with their values, beliefs, and self-interests.
Thus, anti-capitalism is actually anti-freedom.
As the Democratic Party rebrands itself as the party of socialism, the GOP should rebrand itself as the party of freedom.
It’s the smartest, shrewdest PR countermeasure. And it’s a message that’ll play much better nationally than socialism, especially in the must-win swing-states.
Pro-capitalist voices must rise up while they still can. And they better not wait for MAGA-aligned influencers to lead the charge because they’re not coming. That’s not their job anymore.
It’s our job.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Zohran Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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