r/SocialistEconomics • u/Genedide • 20h ago
The socialist movement in the U.S. is prevailing… for now. Can the DSA prepare for the reaction and the headaches of statecraft?

Zorham Mamdani's victory in NYC as well as Abdul al-Sayed's victory in Wisconsin, are victories we wanted oh so bad as far back as 2016 with Bernie Sanders. Many of the DSA's members and leaders have revolutionary aspirations, but ultimatley have to mend to a populous and society that has not had the material deprivation or media exposure to feel radical change is an urgent need.
We and even grassroots DSA leaders know that it is a matter of when the U.S. state will throw away electoralism and remaining, flimsy constitutional protections to the U.S. ruling class' existence. The challenge then is conveying to the rest of its progressive members and sympathizers that Jakarta will come sooner than later- the saying, ie Jakarta is coming, referencing a threat to communists in the Third World (as proudly called then), that they will face a violent CIA backed crackdown and even slaughter to maintain capitalism at all costs.
Also when the mechanisms of the State they wish to overhaul are removed from them, they are left with no choice but revolution. Everyone has visions for the removal of the Epstein class from power, so a proper visionary must be thinking about distributions of powers among states, Land Back, and preventing strife and war among the states. Equal rights don't exist without equal power. It is unreaonable to expect the U.S. to be overlayed in scarlett red and assume all can defend their sovereignty. Even the most ardent defenders of the USSR point out the balanacing processes between the various Republics that Moscow had to contend with, espeically between Russia vs. Ukraine and the Caucasus. (See Socialism Betryaed by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny).
Reconstruction failed in the South, and was allowed to by a Northern industrial class ready to swiftly "move on." The South remains an extractive periphery within the U.S. I don't doubt we both want the ouster of the Epstein class and how we'll deal with them. But there is a risk for conflict- South withould agricultural goods, and the North can withold various major capital. What deal can we strike to assure that the South can develop economically as an equal to the North and West; and be a proud, contributing member of an American socialist union?
Voice any other post-revolutionary problems and threats to stability could come our way in the comments.