I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Van Jones.
Admittedly, that's not a great sign; I am always looking for Democrats whom I can admire to reaffirm my sense that the lot of them aren't a bunch of commie traitors or organized crime figures who believe in big government solely because they want a larger slice of the pie. I do know they are out there, because I know some personally, but they are increasingly few and far between.
So far, Mr. Jones has mostly confirmed by belief in him, which is also backed up by Scott Jennings' endorsement of his integrity when I once asked about him.
So it didn't really surprise me to see Jones' cri du coeur hitting back on his fellow Democrats for pretending that the DSA-aligned candidates who are winning elections are just a sign that the Democrats have a big tent.
I'm tired of being told that, to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas.
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) July 18, 2026
I'm a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I'm rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education,… pic.twitter.com/foPRXip7fb
I'm tired of being told that, to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas.
I'm a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I'm rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education, clean air and water. These are ideas I have fought for my entire adult life.
But some people in groups like the DSA are pushing an agenda FAR outside those ideals. Supporting Hamas is not progressive. "No police, no prisons, no borders" is not progressive. Celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians is not progressive. These ideas are REGRESSIVE.
If there were no police or prisons, if anyone in your neighborhood could do whatever they wanted, while politicians cheered on terror groups — would that represent PROGRESS to you? No, that would be a step back. Those are REGRESSIVE ideas.
On the other hand, if everybody could see a doctor when they got sick, get a good, free education and breathe clean air — would that represent progress? Yes. Those are PROGRESSIVE ideas.
They are NOT the same thing. And the difference matters.
Some defend the far left by claiming they only want Nordic-style social democracy. If that were true, I might applaud them. I want those policies, too! But what does universal healthcare have to do with Hamas? With abolishing all law enforcement? With erasing all borders? With treating every wealthy person as a villain? Ideas matter. And these are terrible ideas.
Right now, extremists are trying to sneak backwards proposals into our party, hoping mainstream Democrats are too frustrated with MAGA and the Democratic Party establishment to notice.
But we see you.
Yes, we want our Democratic Party to be a big tent. But we don’t need "party poopers. So STOP pooping in the punch bowl — and telling us the turds are ice cubes.
They aren't. And we are smart enough to know the difference. 💩
The DSA candidates are, at least generally, smart enough to dance around the fact that they are communists, although many will admit to their fellows that the only reason they are running as Democrats is that third-party candidates almost always lose, so hijacking the Democratic Party nominations is their only path to power.
Of course, the camouflage is pretty thin, but apparently it is enough to give power-hungry Organized Crime Democrats and center-left voters an excuse to pretend that these "Democratic Socialists" are just normal progressives who are especially passionate and energetic.
Politicians—of both parties—tend to tailor their rhetoric to flatter voters, so many OCDs and center-left Democrats hungry for electoral victories look the other way when a Socialist/Communist takes off in the primaries or captures a seat in a reliably Democratic district.
Taking them on costs them politically because the activists tend to be hardcore leftists, while the most centrist voters don't tend to show up for the primaries and are reliable enough generally to vote for Democrats even if they are crazy. If Jay Jones can win in a swing state, they reason, best not to rock the boat. Look at what has happened to John Fetterman!
Hasan Piker delivers Hitler-style rant in a Mao Zedong suit pic.twitter.com/0RYL3Lx5Vt
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 19, 2026
The problems with that line of thinking are twofold: OCDs depend on keeping the Golden Goose alive to keep harvesting the golden eggs that free markets provide, and center-to-center-left Democrats eventually drift away from the Party after something or another drives them away. It could be gender extremism, rising crime, one too many tax increases, or support for Hamas.
🚨 WOW! Bill Maher just said he's considering voting Republican for president in 2028 because Democrats are becoming communists
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 19, 2026
HUGE MISTAKE, DEMS!
"Yes, my vote is in play...I'm NOT living in communist America. The talking point, 'it's socialism.' I read the quotes from the… pic.twitter.com/4MNyJOYtwM
WOW! Bill Maher just said he's considering voting Republican for president in 2028 because Democrats are becoming communists
HUGE MISTAKE, DEMS!
"Yes, my vote is in play...I'm NOT living in communist America. The talking point, 'it's socialism.' I read the quotes from the DSA platform, from their own mouths, don't tell me I'm not seeing what I am seeing! They say things like, take over key industries, THAT'S COMMUNISM."
As most of you know, Bill Maher is getting red-pilled on a number of issues, and has noticed what is happening in other Anglosphere countries and worries that the left is dragging us down the same road. One of the reasons why Beege and I keep pointing out what is going on in the United Kingdom is that what is going on there is a preview of what the left wants to do here.
Bill Maher tells British comedian Jack Whitehall that England now spends more on welfare than it collects in income tax.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 20, 2026
£333,000,000,000 out. £331,000,000,000 in.
MAHER: "England just got way too woke on a bunch of crazy shit... They passed a milestone where the amount of… pic.twitter.com/qc4VY9H0kR
Bill Maher tells British comedian Jack Whitehall that England now spends more on welfare than it collects in income tax.
£333,000,000,000 out. £331,000,000,000 in.
MAHER: "England just got way too woke on a bunch of crazy shit... They passed a milestone where the amount of money they’re giving out in welfare is, for the first time, more than what they take in in taxes."
[Whitehall's eyebrows shoot up]
MAHER: "Every third eligible-to-work man is not working. They’re 'on disability.' And some people really are... but NOT THAT MANY."
One of the frustrations that many of us have is that it takes FAR longer for people to catch up to what is happening than it should. The power of propaganda is strong enough, and the emotional commitments many people have to their party identity are strong enough, that the breaking point is much farther down the line than it should be.
That's especially true when people identify political parties as expressions of their moral code—for Democrats, that is usually "compassion" and "fairness."
Hasan Piker: Mao Zedong is one of the great leaders of this world pic.twitter.com/b1DGAXQgKJ
— DSA Watch (@DSA_Watch) July 20, 2026
The defection of figures such as Bill Maher and Van Jones doesn't signal a sea change, but it is a sign that there is still some hope that center-left voters can be persuaded to push back. As a practical matter, that is more likely to result in reduced loyalty to the Democrats rather than in defection to the Republicans, as with people like Jillian Michaels or RFK, Jr., but that does mean that Republicans have more paths to election in purple areas.
One of the reasons why Democrats are not showing the generic ballot edge that one would expect this year is the doubts voters have about Democrats. They see the lurch leftward, and that worries them, despite a sourness about Trump among many voters.
Far-left Democrats can't wait to vote Democrat, but more independent voters are not flocking to their party as one would expect.
The electoral consequences of this trend are impossible to predict because we don't know whether Republicans and independents skeptical of the radical left will show up at the polls to vote against the radicals. In the medium term, this is not good for Democrats.
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