It’s Not the Poor Fueling Socialism’s Rise. It’s the Rich.

[Doc7505]

It’s Not the Poor Fueling Socialism’s Rise. It’s the Rich.
Darializa Avila Chevalier’s victory in New York’s 13th district exposes a national paradox: Candidates running on working-class politics are powered by affluent, highly educated voters.​

It’s Not the Poor Fueling the Rise of Socialists. It’s the Rich.

Darializa Avila Chevalier’s victory in New York’s 13th district exposes a national paradox: Candidates running on working-class politics are increasingly powered by affluent, highly educated voters, writes Rafael A. Mangual.

www.thefp.com

25 Jun 2026 ~~ By Rafael A. Mangual

There’s a seeming paradox at the epicenter of the political earthquake that hit New York City on Tuesday night, when a trio of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Zohran Mamdani–backed candidates triumphed in congressional primaries across the city. The progressive candidates who claim to represent a working-class revolution won thanks to the votes of the well-educated, credentialed, and affluent, while low-income New Yorkers tended to back the more moderate candidate. The results reflect a nationwide political reality: Across the country, higher education and income increasingly correlate with progressive voting, while working-class voters—including in long-established immigrant communities—opt for more moderate choices.
That pattern was on full display in New York’s 13th Congressional District last night, where Mamdani-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier dominated in higher-income precincts, while five-term Democratic incumbent Adriano Espaillat carried lower-income areas by 40 points. The race, featuring two Dominican American candidates, exposed a growing divide between the district’s long-established immigrant community and its more activist, college-educated heirs. Today, Rafael A. Mangual examines these dynamics, focusing not only on the contest itself but on the district’s particular character—and diagnosing what he sees as a new political framework in America: “The immigrant who built a career on becoming American has given way to the American-born activist who rejects American patriotism in favor of militant Third Worldism.”
But this contest is about more than Mamdani’s influence in such races. It was a primary fought in Upper Manhattan and the West Bronx, the largest center of Dominican political life in the United States, between two candidates of Dominican origin. The more revealing question is not about how Mamdani’s backing affected the outcome, but what Avila Chevalier’s victory tells us about the changing politics of race, ethnicity, and class within that community.


Commentary:
For rich leftists Socialism is virtue signaling and do not care what the cost is to the actual poor.
Socialism, in real life, is a wealth transfer from the less to the more. The rich aren’t paying for socialism, because they removed their income from being taxed by changing it to revenue. Socialism is being paid for by the poor and middle classes. It’s all about keeping them from building wealth.
It's a way for those with government bureaucratic connections to protect their positions from smart and ambitious middle class kids who want to rise.
One of the first industries the socialists set out to capture was higher education. Then it was all education. By a high majority instructors are mostly leftist indoctrinators. Normal Americans were told their children needed college. They weren’t warned they would be corrupted. Consequently, if a student wasn’t aware to be on the lookout for the indoctrination, they were swept up in it. They are now too stupid to understand how wrong they are.
The voters are being used as useful idiots. Not one of them can point to a successful socialist country or community. They all make excuses about how the US trade policy caused it to fail or that the “right person” wasn’t in charge.

 

[Moonglow]

Because no modern state has maintained a purely socialist planned economy without eventually incorporating aspects of capitalism, the most "successful" models are found in worker-owned networks or social democracies. Outstanding examples of socialism and collectivism thriving in practice include the following: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

1. The Mondragon Corporation (Spain)
Located in the Basque region of Spain, Mondragon is the world's largest worker-owned cooperative. [1, 2, 3, 4]

• Structure: Founded in 1956, it operates as a vast network of over 80 independent cooperatives encompassing finance, industry, retail, and education. [1, 2, 3]
• Success Metric: Mondragon operates on a "one person, one vote" basis and restricts its highest executive pay to a strict ratio (typically 6:1 to 9:1) compared to the lowest-paid workers. [1, 2]
• Global Reach: Despite its radical equality, the collective is a major international competitor generating around €11.2 billion in annual sales and employing over 70,000 workers globally. You can learn more about the structure directly from the Mondragon Corporation website. [1, 2]

2. The Israeli Kibbutz Movement
Kibbutzim are communal, collective settlements in Israel that were originally heavily agrarian but have since evolved to include advanced manufacturing and tech. [1, 2]

• Structure: Land, resources, and income are shared among members. While many have shifted toward private enterprise in recent decades, their economic and societal footprint remains massive. [1, 2]
• Success Metric: These communities are highly productive; making up roughly 2% of Israel's population, kibbutzim account for about 34% of the country’s agricultural output and roughly 9% of its industrial production. [1, 2]

3. The Nordic Model (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)
While not strictly socialist (they rely heavily on free-market capitalism), the Nordic nations are widely considered the most successful examples of democratic socialism in practice. [1, 2]

• Structure: They combine free trade and enterprise with massive tax revenues that are funneled into robust social safety nets.
• Success Metric: These countries regularly top the UN's World Happiness Report and rank highest globally in quality of life, wealth distribution, and educational equality. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

4. Co-op Communities (United States)
Even in capitalist nations, socialist-style community networks thrive on a localized scale. [1]

• Structure: Grassroots organizations like Co-op Cincy in Cincinnati, OH, help build local, interconnected worker-owned businesses.
• Success Metric: Workers share in the governance and profits of their enterprises. For local worker-ownership networks operating near you, check out the Co-op Cincy network. [1, 2, 3]

 

[DGS49]

It can work in a closed community - a monastery, commune, or comparable - because everyone involved is there voluntarily, AND there is a good work ethic.

Scandanavia has a good work ethic, which makes (made) their system work. Demographics are killing in now.

In the U.S. we have tens of millions of people whose mission in life is to "game the system," whatever that system is. People who do volunteer work see it close up and personal. I did Habitat stuff for a couple years right after I retired, and it was common to be working in someone's basement or yard, sweating your ass off, while teenagers were playing video games in the living room. That's why I quit.

Socialism cannot work here because of that large element in our society. We ain't Denmark or Germany.