One of the great unknowns in the 2020 election is the surprising shift of many young voters and Democrats toward a socialist agenda. It is still not clear if the majority of the country is ready for such a shift though polls show growing support for socialist policies. Not to be outdone, Candi CdeBaca won a runoff race last week against former Denver city council president Albus Brooks by pledging that she would implement not socialist, but virtually communist policies “by any means necessary.”
CdeBaca insists that we are now in “late phase capitalism” and that we are ready to move to “community ownership” of land and resources. Indeed, in the video from a “Denver Decides” candidate forum, CdeBaca seemed to be reading directly from Das Capital:
“I don’t believe our current economic system actually works. Um, capitalism by design is extractive and in order to generate profit in a capitalist system, something has to be exploited, that’s land, labor or resources. And I think that we’re in late phase capitalism and we know it doesn’t work and we have to move into something new, and I believe in community ownership of land, labor, resources and distribution of those resources. And whatever that morphs into is I think what will serve community the best and I’m excited to usher it in by any means necessary.”
What is astonishing is that, with failures of socialist and communist systems around the world, Democratic candidates are touting the superiority of such centralized economies over capitalism. A Harris poll found 55 percent of Americans would prefer to live in a socialist country. As with the popularity of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the victory in Denver shows just how far apart the extremes of American politics has become.