The Political Divide Widens as the Left Becomes Captured By the Fringy Democratic Socialist of America

If politicalism continues to rise as it has for over a decade, how do the Red states and Blue states remain united? Isn’t it more likely they will seek a mutual dissolution?

When I moved to Colorado in 1998, very liberal Diana DeGette was a first term congresswoman representing Denver having replaced very liberal Pat Schroeder. In 2003, as the Deputy Director for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, I got to know then-law professor Phil Weiser at the University of Colorado when he ran a big tech gathering at the school. No one who attended Weiser’s event or who had spent time with him would have said he was a far-left progressive. So, it was somewhat of shock on June 30 when Colorado’s primary results had DeGette getting thrown out by Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) member and serious 9/11 whack job Melat Kiros by 13.4% and now-Colorado Attorney General and far-left darling Weiser defeating U.S. Senator Michael Bennet by nearly fourteen points. With those victories, Democrats cannot dismiss or minimize the fringiness of its DSA base. Per a recent CNN survey, one-third of Democrats now identify as socialists.

For years, the popularity of nullification existed among a small far-right group with little understanding of the constitutionality of it, as nullification ignores Article VI’s Supremacy Clause, which states:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

That is what makes the Left’s mainstream embrace of nullification so shocking, especially given its history during the Jim Crow Era in which white racists (who were Democrats by the way) pushed nullification to disenfranchise blacks. While for years I have explained the political spectrum as more of a clamshell sitting on its hinge than a line, with the far right and far left having more in common than both groups have with the middle dominated by concerns for civil liberties, the mainstream Left seems to be disappearing more each year, leaving only radical politicians pushing more and more extreme views. You see this in California Gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer’s advocacy to throw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in jail simply for doing their job because Democrats in California and elsewhere care more about violent illegal immigrants than they do Americans citizens harmed by those invaders.

You see it again in the response of Democrat governors to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on protecting girls and women from biological boys and men in sports. California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to the decision by stating that “The Supreme Court’s decision does not affect California’s laws. The state remains committed to ensuring every Californian, including the LGBTQ community, is met with dignity and respect.” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker stated, “Going after LGBTQ+ kids isn’t leadership — it’s bullying. Today’s decision is a setback for equality in this nation where every student deserves to learn and belong, no matter their gender. To those in the LGBTQ+ community, know that there’s a place for you in Illinois.” Hawaii Governor Josh Green: “The Hawaiʻi State Department of Education will continue to implement its athletics policies in accordance with state law. The Supreme Court’s decision does not change our current policies or practices.”

Supremacy Clause be damned!!! States can choose to ignore federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions if they want. Just like the American South did from 1878 to 1964 (again, all Democrats once they chased out Republicans, including black Republicans, who were elected during the Reconstruction Era). Which side of the political spectrum again is concerned with “saving our Democracy”?

The election of DSA candidates in New York City, Maine, Colorado, and Wisconsin augurs this movement towards the extreme trend. As Ashley Herndon recently observed in “It’s Not the Left Rising. It’s the Center Falling”:

This is why I think it matters to read the Democratic Party’s post-2024 convulsion as a story of establishment collapse rather than left-wing ascension. Stevens, Clyburn, and the party’s leadership would prefer to make this a referendum on the left — on the acceptability of its candidates and its media figures. But the base is communicating something else: a lack of confidence in the center, and in a version of establishment politics that prizes seniority and loyalty over voters’ values.

The base of the Left has become more and more fringe and anti-Semitic, thereby creating simmering tension with the Jewish community that remains one of the most loyal Democrat voters in America. Trump’s support from Jews dropped from 24% in 2016 to 21% in 2024 despite his ardent and unwavering support for Israel, while his support from Blacks more than doubled, from Asians increased, and from Hispanics jumped substantially (he nearly won them in 2024). If non-college educated blacks continue to move Right as they have been doing since 2016, it is likely that Jews will represent the last uniparty group in America.

Is the DSA platform palatable to anyone other than the Left? Bill Scher sums it up in his column, “”The DSA Platform Would Destroy American Democracy,” when he writes:

To call the DSA platform antithetical to the U.S Constitution is not hyperbole, or an insult to the platform’s authors. The DSA preamble states plainly that the end goal is to “draft a new constitution” to “create a democratic socialist republic.” Such a new U.S. constitution, the DSA envisions, would “replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress,” which would be unicameral after abolishing the Senate.

It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the DSA’s push to trash the Constitution comes during America’s 250th anniversary in which America under the Constitution has survived civil war, global wars, depressions, and other domestic threats. The Left also can’t handle when state supreme courts don’t give them their way, which always leads them to push anti-democratic means to win.

Is the Left’s increasing fringiness gathering support outside of the Left? No. In fact, the increasing push by Red counties in Blue states to legally secede by becoming independent states or by joining other states is growing. Of note, there is not a similar trend among Blue counties…yet. Most recently, southern Illinois counties are pushing to leave Illinois because of the sheer dominance of Blue Chicago/Cook County to control who wins elections in Illinois. Democrat dominance leaves the needs and interests of Red counties in the trash bin while gobbling up the income taxes and property taxes of those Red counties. I’ve covered this secession movement previously in “Is America Edging Closer to a National Dissolution?” in which I wrote:

In my national dissolution piece, I wrote about the increasing push by local governments to become parts of other states. Greater Idaho in which the eastern counties in Oregon and Washington secede to Idaho has long been in progress. Recently, a California Assemblymember called for California to be split up into two states—a Blue state formed by coastal areas and a Red state formed by the interior parts of the state. The state would become New California. Indiana also invited several counties in Illinois to become part of Indiana given the short shrift those counties get from the supermajority Democrat control of Illinois. The Indiana legislature actually passed a bill to start this secession process.

To be clear, the Right’s base, too, has moved farther from the political middle—just not as drastic as the Left’s shift. Importantly, on at least two occasions Americans have elected Donald Trump as president, so arguably the Right’s shift isn’t exactly fringe. Nonetheless, the gap between the Right and the Left has grown larger since I first wrote my thought piece on the dissolution of America, “How Long Can America Defy History By Remaining, Well, THE UNITED States?,” in November of 2023. The November elections will divide us even more regardless of what happens.

If the Left should take control of one or both chambers of Congress, its leaders will be driven to push extreme anti-Trump and anti-constitutional ideas to satiate its fringe DSA base. That means more Trump impeachment articles. More investigations of Trump officials. More hearings aimed at radical ideas like packing the U.S. Supreme Court, making Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia states, abolishing the Electoral College, permitting mass mail in ballots for elections, pushing for national popular vote, opening the borders, granting amnesty to ten million plus illegal immigrants, and, apparently, rescinding the Constitution.

If the Right should retain control of Congress, then Trump and Republicans will have achieved a very rare occurrence—the party in power in a midterm election not losing seats/control. With Trump’s bungling of the war in Iran that has caused negative economic ripples on Main Street America, that outcome seems unlikely three months out...unless the Left’s DSA embrace and redistricting save the day for Republicans. That puts Republicans in the driver’s seat for a solid 2028 election. Such a win also would push the Left’s DSA base and its gubernatorial squad in California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia to become more frantic in its/their approach to national politics, thereby widening the political divide even more. Lord knows what they will do if Republicans win again in 2028, as that win most certainly will come with appointing at least two new U.S. Supreme Court justices.

As I’ve argued, the political divide in which politics became personal started with the “borking” of Robert Bork in 1987 by U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden. After that incident, each party ratcheted the temperature up over the next two decades (e.g., Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings; Clinton impeachment). However, the vilification of “the them” really became ingrained thanks to Barack Obama in 2008 when he launched his attack against people of the Right as those “who cling to guns or religion.” For eight years, Obama deployed his strawman on the Right to denigrate them more. In 2016, Hillary Clinton famously joined Obama’s push to dehumanize the Right when she stated: “To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [They are] racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.” Clinton later called for the Right to be sent the “re-education camps” as she declared, “At some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.”

It, therefore, isn’t surprising that an increasing number of those on the Left think those of us on the Right are less than fully human. There is a reason I trademarked the terms “politicalist” and “politicalism” to describe how the Left believes those of us on the Right are inferior.

The Right doesn’t hold anywhere close to similar views of those on the Left. I despise U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and think Obama has set back race relations by decades, but I don’t think my family members and neighbors on the Left are bad people. They are just misinformed (by the media), warped by hatred for Trump (driven by the media), or simply wrong ideologically (as taught in our schools). As I wrote in my 2024 book, “The Myth of the Bigger, Better Deal,” about the rise of women on the Left who inject their politicalist views on the dating apps, this extreme tribalism is seeping into every corner of our lives more and more each passing year. I’m not the only one seeing this growing trend.

As I’ve asked before: what do you foresee will bridge the political divide to bring us back or closer together? Despite thinking about it frequently, I’m at a loss on that question, friends. If politicalism continues to rise as it has for over a decade, how do the Red states and Blue states remain united? Isn’t it more likely they will seek a mutual dissolution?

P.S. In case you missed it, U.S. News and World Report issued its 2026 best states rankings. Ohio came in 42nd, with middling scores on Infrastructure and the Economy and a top twenty score on Opportunity. This bottom ten ranking is in stark contrast to CNBC’s “best states for business otherwise known as whose marketing plan is better” ranking in which Ohio was 1st due to JobsOhio pouring millions into convincing CNBC it was the best despite all of the objective evidence that it is not.