Democratic socialist writer levels with voters: We want to ‘end capitalism’

The rise of “democratic socialism” has been one of the key developments in the Democratic Party in recent years, first with the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and more recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win over party mainstay Rep. Joe Crowley in New York.

One of the ways the movement is presented is with the claim that this is not your grandfather’s socialism -- or the socialism of the former Soviet Union, Venezuela or other failed states. It’s more “Scandinavian health care” than overthrowing the bourgeoisie.

But now a democratic socialist writer is leveling with voters, telling them that actually, yes, they want to topple capitalism.

"I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of [the Democratic Socialists of America], and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism.

In an article for Vox, Meagan Day, a writer for the socialist magazine Jacobin and a democratic socialist, says the goal is to pursue a “reform agenda today in an effort to revive a politics focused on class hierarchy and inequality in the United States.”

“The eventual goal is to transform the world to promote everyone’s needs rather than to produce massive profits for a small handful of citizens,” she says.

Day goes on to reject the idea that democratic socialism is just a modern form of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, as some have suggested.

“But we also want more than FDR did. A robust welfare state in an economy that’s still organized around capitalists’ profits can mitigate the worst inequalities for a while, but it’s at best a temporary truce between bosses and workers — and one that the former will look to scrap as soon as they can,” she argues.

In the meantime, she argues that the goals of democratic socialists should be to go and fight battles that will eventually rally people together to fight what she calls “the capitalist Goliaths currently in charge of our society.”

The article comes after a rough few days for democratic socialists. Ocasio-Cortez was widely criticized for an interview with "The Daily Show" where she struggled to lay out exactly how she’d fund her agenda.

A new study found that the “Medicare for All” plan pushed by Sanders, and endorsed by a host of Democratic congressional and presidential hopefuls, would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years.

On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama issued a list of midterm endorsements -- a list which notably did not include Ocasio-Cortez.