The Suicide of the Left

In a conversation that ranges from the Democratic Socialists of America to the mayoralty of New York City, Sam Harris and James Kirchick argue that a faction within the Democratic Party is pushing the party toward political irrelevance by aligning itself with anti-democratic forces. Kirchick, now at The Atlantic after leaving The New York Times, has written an article titled "The DSA Is a Parasite," and the discussion centers on why mainstream Democrats have failed to recognize the danger of this alliance.

The DSA's Actual Platform

The Democratic Socialists of America, according to Harris, explicitly calls for "abolishing the presidency, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Pentagon, the police, prisons, border enforcement, all debt, capitalism and private property itself." Kirchick adds that the DSA's foreign policy is "almost even more revealing"—the organization offers "solidarity to a wide range of the most despicable communist dictatorships on earth, from North Korea to the Cuban dictatorship." The party's leadership, he says, is "composed of most of the people that are openly declared Marxists."