The issue isn’t “soft sell” or “hard sell.” It is a genuine question of what the DSA was, is today, and whether it can ever become relevant tomorrow. Sometimes “programs” are just words on paper.
First, to set the record straight: I am an “independent social democrat” (also an internationalist and anti-imperialist) — which means I accept that capitalism is here to stay, but by no means believe it must be accepted as it is today. This is different than being “a socialist.”
My politics are not extremely different from, but certainly don’t slavishly identify with, parties that are normally called “Labour.” Democratic Socialist parties (which are also often just called “Labour” or “Socialist” parties), regardless of differences in policy or name, all absolutely defend representative parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. It is precisely this that distinguishes them (and “social democratic” parties) from being either “communist” or “totalitarian.”
The program of the small “Democratic Socialists of America” (DSA) is not really typical of most Democratic Socialist parties around the world. The larger socialist parties that have actually governed countries in recent years are official members of the “Socialist International.” They are usually more practical, less “woke” in terms of extremely radical gender issues, and lack American’s strong tendency toward cultural individualism, romantic anarchism and identity politics. They can sometimes be quite conservative on social issues and sometimes quite nationalist.
American “socialists” are rather different. The DSA’s independent appeal to voters as a party is insignificant. The DSA, nevertheless, has grown from just a few thousand members to almost 100,000 in the last few years. It is searching for a way to be effective, but in our two party system with America’s traditional Cold War allergy toward anything even sounding “socialist” … that will be difficult.
An example of more typical and significant democratic socialist parties would include the “Labour Parties” of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, the “Socialist Parties” of France, Spain, Finland, the “New Democratic Party” of Canada and many, many others in Europe and elsewhere.
The DSA withdrew from the “Socialist International” a few years ago because it felt the Socialist International was too closely allied to U.S. foreign policy, noting that some smaller parties in the Socialist International — like the Venezuelan opposition party then led by Juan Guaidó — were little more than CIA fronts using the “Socialist” label to appear “populist” in their own countries, or where connections to big European socialist parties were useful and provided “cover.”
The program of the DSA — which has never had the responsibility of governing much of anything — is more “woke” and “progressive” and claims to be more radical than most other “democratic socialist” parties. But in practice the DSA has had its main successes when it has run a few charismatic individual candidates inside the main liberal capitalist party in the U.S. — the corporate-controlled Democrats.
I hope this helps to explain some unique aspects of the DSA, and hint at my differences with this mainly middle class party of youthful and often naive “socialists.”