It's really too early to make any predictions about who will come out on top in the Democratic Party's race for the next presidential nomination, and the peculiarities of the process tend to favor the Organized Crime Democrats over the more extreme progressives in the race.
Socialists/communists currently own the ideological momentum in the Democratic primaries — even very progressive incumbents are getting destroyed in primaries where the DSA decides to play, suggesting that the Mamdani wing on the Party can control the nomination process when it decides to mobilize, as they surely will in the upcoming presidential race.
Their most potent opponents will, ironically, turn out to be black Democrats who rightly feel that they are being displaced by a movement dominated by whites who are obsessed with Israel and what they call "global south" issues ("global south" is what the communists call the third world). Their interests align heavily with the OCDs, so it's no surprise that South Carolina handed Biden the presidential nomination after his poor showings in Deep Blue regions.
Ro Khanna recognized early that he had to pick a lane to run for president, and that he had zero chance if he chose the OCD lane, which is crowded with figures such as Newsom, Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris. In Congress, Khanna was very progressive, but also friendly to the tech crowd he represented in the House, but he dropped them like a hot potato when he informally entered the presidential race.
This is the march of altruism destroying the greatest and only moral country in history, and the rest of the world along with it. Nearly every item on your list rests on one premise: that a man's life and property belong to the collective, to be seized and redirected by force.…
— The Rational Animal 🤔 (@theobjectivist) July 1, 2026
Many are asking me what do I make of last night and progressive wins across our nation.
I say the era of cliches delivered with charisma and charm is over.
This is a time for courage.
Voters want to know where you stand on the hard issues and whether you will fight for change in an unfair and lopsided economic and political system.
Are you for single payer healthcare?
For taxing the wealth of billionaires?
For taxing capital like we tax work?
For no more wars?
For recognizing the genocide?
For taxing agentic AI more than workers?
For a real living wage?
For abolishing and replacing ICE?
For money out of politics?
This is not an age for triangulation or obfuscation.
This is the march of altruism destroying the greatest and only moral country in history, and the rest of the world along with it. Nearly every item on your list rests on one premise: that a man's life and property belong to the collective, to be seized and redirected by force.
The "unfair, lopsided system" you decry is capitalism, the one where a man keeps what he creates. That system lifted mankind from candlelight and horseback to a life of abundance no king of the past could have dreamed of: cured diseases, full grocery shelves, a device in every pocket. It is the greatest engine of human flourishing ever discovered. What you offer to replace it is fairness by leveling: everyone made equal in the poverty your policies always produce.
Single payer, taxing wealth, taxing capital, taxing AI, a mandated wage. All the same thing: the state takes what a man earned, dictates what he may keep, and calls the theft compassion. You brand success a crime and confiscation a virtue.
You call it courage. It is the oldest cowardice there is, promising people the unearned by pointing a gun at whoever produced it.
Real courage is the to defend the truth that you evade. A man's life is his own. He does not exist to be taxed, drafted, and managed for your causes.
Khanna is now running as a buttoned-up socialist, still looking like a tech-friendly mogul (he is wealthy as Crassus, with half a billion dollars to his name, and the most prolific stock trader in Congress), but running on every "progressive" issue he can attach his name to.
The longer he has been in the race, the farther left he has gone, anticipating the trend toward socialism and jumping in front of the parade in a bid to lead it.
Even a week ago, I would have given him a 0.0% chance of snagging the nomination, but I am beginning to revise my odds as new data comes out. His chances are still low, both because there are more natural fits for the communist lane than he, including AOC, who may throw her hat into the ring, and because Blue State governors have a better shot at raising the money and banking on their national profiles than Khanna, who alienated his donor base and will struggle to find a new one.
But don't assume that AOC is a lock for this vote if she gets into the race. Even she will have to fight for the top spot, as a lot of the Bolsheviks see her as a sellout. Notably, she did not endorse some of the DSA candidates who won this year.
🚨 BREAKING: A @FreeBeacon investigation reveals Rep. Ro Khanna—who rails against the ultra-rich who "hoard wealth"—lives in a $6M D.C. mansion with a four-story elevator while his family's $340M+ fortune sits in the exact trusts, hedge funds, and LLCs he condemns.
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) June 30, 2026
Those trusts…
🚨 BREAKING: A @FreeBeacon investigation reveals Rep. Ro Khanna—who rails against the ultra-rich who "hoard wealth"—lives in a $6M D.C. mansion with a four-story elevator while his family's $340M+ fortune sits in the exact trusts, hedge funds, and LLCs he condemns.
Those trusts made 4,100+ stock trades worth ~$53M in 2025—even as Khanna leads the push to BAN members of Congress from trading stocks—while he claims "zero knowledge" of the trades.
His kids (under 10) hold stakes in three private golf clubs, a $65B wealth firm, and a distressed-debt hedge fund—the same vehicles he attacks—while his wife drives a $190K Range Rover.
Bottom line: Khanna's fortune is built and shielded exactly the way he says the rich shouldn't do it.
Khanna is also from a disfavored ethnic group; compared to blacks or Arabs, Indians are lower on the intersectional ladder of oppression. His tailored suits and highly educated language disfavor him as well.
Pritzker fits the bill as a progressive contender, as do Chris Murphy and Raphael Warnock, who would have crossover appeal to both the radicals and black voters, since he speaks their language.
Candidates with "crossover appeal" to moderates are in something of a pickle because the serial victories of the Bolshevik Democrats make them quite unlikely to compromise with the OCDs; they smell victory, and that this is their time.
JB Pritzker says embracing Socialism is how Democrats are going to win elections:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 1, 2026
CNN: "In New York, three candidates who identify as Democratic Socialists won their primary campaigns...Do you think that's good?"
PRITZKER: "That is the recipe for winning in 2026 and beyond." pic.twitter.com/HSyGaRRYEN
No matter who ultimately gets the nomination, it's clear they will be explicit about running against capitalism in a way Democrats have shied away from in the past. They will also have to contend with the fear that the OCDs have for the communist takeover of the party. They will fight to prevent the nomination of a Bolshevik out of fear for their own seats, hampering whoever wins in the general election.
Right now, the socialists have the ideological upper hand, and the OCDs will do what they have done since 2016: do their best to stack the deck procedurally.
I'm not sure it will work this time. The Bolsheviks are stronger, more organized, and have more money than the national Democratic Party, which is broke, and even the party's congressional leadership is neutered.
The Bolsheviks have a real shot at circumventing the OCDs this time. Bernie had a movement, but the Bolsheviks have more than that: organization and money, along with a much more compelling message for the base than the OCDs have had in decades.
That's why I think Khanna has a better-than-zero-percent chance of taking the nomination. It would require AOC and Warnock to stay out of the race, and for other progressive Democrats to fizzle under the harsh lights of a presidential race, which happens often enough (Kamala in 2020, for example).
Many in DSA quite literally believe Governor Shapiro is a Nazi and want nothing to do with him, his call for pragmatism, or the idea of working together for the benefit of all Pennsylvanians.pic.twitter.com/E4uIxai19s https://t.co/79nLTX62Em
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) July 1, 2026
At this point, running in the "centrist" lane makes you something of an underdog. Buttigieg has the inside track with the "moderate" Dems who love the "policy nerd" look. Shapiro is Jewish, and Beshear, whose appeal is that he might win a national election, will be hated by the Bolsheviks for that reason. They can't even stand Scott Weiner because he is a sellout in their eyes.
It's true that the OCDs are now scared enough to fight back and mobilize, but it's not clear that their base is as passionate as the Bolsheviks, who can also appeal to most of the client base of the OCDs.
The massive wave of victories the Bolsheviks have given them momentum that the OCDs can't currently match, and an awful lot of the money the OCDs have been able to count on is ready to back the Bolsheviks. All those NGOs are much farther left than the OCDs, and they know they will be fed even better by the Bolsheviks.
The past couple of weeks haven't just upended the internal politics of the Democratic Party; they have fundamentally reshaped the race for the nomination.
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