The modern-day Red Scare is officially here

It's the summer of socialism in the US, with some progressives calling for revolution and Republicans pushing a modern-day Red Scare. Democrats are contending with the ascendance of democratic socialists in their left flank and Republicans are busy demonizing Democrats, inaccurately, as communists. New York City's mayor, the Democrat and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, is opening a few city-run grocery stores and taxing the second homes of the wealthy with a beaming smile on his face. He's had more trouble delivering on a promise to make public buses free. Democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who has previously expressed support for the concept of abolishing police, is a leading contender to be the Democratic candidate for governor in Wisconsin. The August 11 primary will be a key test of whether democratic socialism can be sold in the heartland. Unlike Hong, the progressive Democrat (but not democratic socialist) Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in the August 4 Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, has tried to delete and move on from his previous involvement with unpopular ideas such as defunding the police, as CNN's KFile reported. The more establishment wing of the Democratic Party is getting increasingly frantic in warning that the socialism badge will be a drag for the whole party in November. 'This is a consequential election where we could put a checkmate on Donald Trump and we cannot risk it with diversions from the Democratic Socialists of America,' the CNN political commentator Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff, told CNN's Kasie Hunt on Monday. DSA is one of the leading groups in the progressive ecosystem that has tried to pull Democrats to the left in recent years. Mamdani is a member, but Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is not, although he has inspired DSA. Hong said at a debate in Wisconsin on Tuesday that she does not support the full DSA platform. But she said democratic socialism 'is a form of government that puts working-class people first.' Republicans, hoping to divert attention from President Donald Trump's dismal approval ratings, have been clear that their strategy will be to paint the entire Democratic Party as communist, which, again, is incorrect. Trump used the term 'communist' or 'communism' 13 times during one recent appearance in Michigan. 'Communism is the greatest threat to our country in history, including even World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or 9/11,' he said, making an argument that might have come as a surprise to the many Americans who watched the fall of the Berlin Wall decades ago on CNN. DSA has its own platform, or 'program.' When DSA's co-chair Megan Romer appeared this week on 'Fox News Sunday,' she confirmed that, yes, DSA does support some things that might alarm the moderate middle in the country. Abolishing the Senate? Getting rid of prisons and ICE? Replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with a new form of government? Yep, they're ultimately behind all of that, she said.