It’s been said in recent months that socialism is slowly taking over America. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the western state of Nevada.
While the state typically has fairly competitive congressional and general election presidential races (Trump lost to Biden by less than three percent in 2020), the state does tend to lean quite a bit farther to the left.
Take the fact the state was one of the only ones in which self-described Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the Democratic primary as just one example. Of course, with Biden winning on a national level, it didn’t matter much.
But more signs within the state are continuing to travel toward socialism.
One is that the state’s Democratic Party’s entire staff was just replaced by “Democratic socialists.” No, members of the party establishment weren’t all booted out. They just all left.
But why?
Well, as with many states, the party just held an election, with several seats, including the party’s chair being up for grabs. And in every election where a candidate of the Democratic Socialists of America ran, they won.
Apparently, the other Democrats, ones of a more moderate outlook, didn’t appreciate having their party chair taken over by the hard left. And so, they all resigned. And yes, I mean all of them.
According to The Intercept, the party’s executive director Alana Mounce wrote an email to newly elected chair Judith Whitmer shortly after the election. While she was quick to congratulate Whitmer on her win, she also announced that she and the entire party staff would be leaving their positions.
And it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. As The Intercept reports, the socialist wins were something to be expected in the state. So Mounce and her staff had put a plan together that included vacating their seats altogether, as well as paying themselves hefty severance checks on the way out, depleting the party’s funds considerably.
Whitmer, who is now free to fill all the positions with like-minded socialists, says she wasn’t entirely surprised by the mass resignation. Whenever there is a change in leadership, there are always a few souls who feel disgruntled enough that they can no longer work as they did before.
However, the new chair says she was surprised at the complete lack of willingness to accept the change and work with others who might think differently.
“(W)hat hit us by surprise and was sort of shocking is that for a slate that claimed that they were all about unity, and kept this false narrative of division going on throughout the entire campaign – in fact they kept intensifying that – that’s what was surprising about it, was the willingness to just walk away, instead of working with us.”
I have to say, just like the apparent division being seen in Washington Democrats, the situation doesn’t bode well for the Democratic Party as a whole. It looks to be quite literally torn in half. And by the looks of it, that division isn’t to heal quickly.
Maybe it would be possible to see if just a few staff members leave or if Congress members were still voting according to party lines. But that’s not the case. This entire state’s Democratic Party staff just quit. And in Washington, moderate Dems are starting to side with Republicans rather than their more left-leaning fellow party members.
At the onset, this may look like a significant problem for the country as we see entire states, like Nevada, take a sharp turn to the left. However, in the long run, that sharp turn is likely to cause moderates, as they are already doing in DC, to choose between socialism and democracy.
And I’m willing to bet that a vast majority of them will choose the GOP rather than the DSA, or at the very least cause a significant party shift.
In Nevada, that realization may come soon too. With Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto being up for re-election in 2022 and congressional redistricting, the Republicans in the state are poised to see a massive uptick in support.
Socialism may look to be on the rise, but as this scenario is likely to prove, showing it a little time in the sun will only point out its massive flaws.