当唐纳德·特朗普在2016年总统大选中击败希拉里·克林顿时，格蕾丝·毛瑟刚刚大学毕业。
这位31岁的休斯顿人说:“我是自由派的一员，更倾向于进步派，但我完全相信希拉里·克林顿会赢。”。"和数百万其他人一样，我完全被震惊了，真的很沮丧。"
在寻找将失望转化为行动的方法时，莫瑟回忆了当年伯尼·桑德斯总统竞选背后的能量，以及他在竞选中如何自称为民主社会主义者。
Mausser发现了美国民主社会主义者，并参与了她在纽约市的当地分会，在那里她遇到了当时的纽约州议会候选人Zohran Mamdani，他自2017年以来一直是DSA的成员。
虽然毛瑟本人将继续在纽约进步政治中上升，最终成为纽约市DSA的联合主席，但马姆达尼将成为纽约市市长的民主党提名人，使支持和支持他竞选的组织进一步成为全国关注的焦点。
曼达尼之后不久在六月赢得了初选，特朗普在社交媒体上称这位33岁的人是“100%的共产主义疯子”。特朗普和其他共和党人在整个选举周期中继续称马姆达尼为“共产主义者”。
马姆达尼一直强调自己不是共产主义者，包括上周三在美国广播公司的《观点》节目中。在那里他告诉共同主持人他是一个民主社会主义者。
民主社会主义是一场政治运动，要求在民主管理的政治制度内建立一个分散的社会主义经济制度。它不同于社会主义，社会主义有时与共产主义联系在一起，不一定包括民主形式的治理。
正因为如此，社会主义经常被用来描述古巴和委内瑞拉等国家的政治和经济制度，由于与这些国家的联系，这个词在政治上可能会疏远一些选民。
然而，a最近的盖洛普民意测验发现左倾的美国人对社会主义的态度可能正在改变，现在有66%的民主党人对…的积极看法社会主义，高于2010年的50%。
“我认为人们陷入了一种非常陈旧的思维方式。要知道，特朗普都70多岁了。也许他仍然认为我们处于冷战中，”毛瑟说，他指的是二战后苏联对社会主义意识形态的推广。
“自从‘社会主义者’这个词被发明以来，美国就出现了社会主义者，”乔治城大学历史学教授、本书作者迈克尔·卡津说。《获胜的代价:民主党的历史》“对大多数美国人来说，冷战时期的社会主义意味着苏联、中国、古巴或朝鲜。它意味着一个专制的一党制国家。当然，大多数美国人不想参与其中。”
卡津说，社会主义者过去常常打着自己政党的旗号竞选，而且在很大程度上，从来没有期望过真正赢得任何选举。
“这是一场教育运动，”卡津说。“你试图告诉人们什么是社会主义。”
但在1982年，两个社会主义组织合并成美国民主社会主义者，由迈克尔·哈林顿领导，他对反资本家如何参与美国政治制度有不同的看法。
“哈灵顿的愿景是，社会党人会让人们感受到他们的影响力，而不是作为一个独立的政党运作，”汉密尔顿学院的历史学教授、该传记的作者莫里斯·伊瑟曼说。“另一个美国人:迈克尔·哈林顿的生活。”“通过在民主党内进行选举工作，他们会让自己的想法更受欢迎，影响更大。”
哈林顿对DSA的最初设想——也许最好通过他的创始短语“可能的左翼”——在今天的DSA中仍然有所反映。
“DSA正在使用一种策略，追求民主选票线，以显示社会主义者可以治理，”毛瑟说。“我们希望赢得选举。这就是我们与绿党等团体决裂的地方，绿党有自己的投票路线，但没有取得多少成功。”
美国国家民主社会主义者的联合主席梅根·罗默说，围绕社会主义的思想已经发生了变化。
“60年前，人们听到社会主义，会想到斯大林，我认为，人们现在听到社会主义，会明白它的含义非常不同。它可以代表他们想要的意思，因为这就是民主和集体控制，”罗默说。
当DSA在罗纳德·里根总统任期开始时成立时，左翼团体在政治或文化上没有能力发起成功的竞选活动。但随着21世纪的到来，2008年的金融危机以及由此产生的占领华尔街和茶党运动，美国人开始质疑右翼和左翼的经济体制。
总部位于纽约的政治咨询公司Slingshot Strategies的民主党策略师兼媒体总监格雷格·Krieg(Greg Schmidt)说，“人们有一种感觉，特别是现在回想起来，政治确实在经济问题上分裂了。”。
根据Krieg的说法，右翼人士拥护茶党运动——这最终为特朗普2016年竞选的成功铺平了道路——而左翼人士则为桑德斯的政治崛起奠定了基础。
2016年大选后，DSA的人数飙升——其政治能力也是如此。根据Mausser的说法，2016年是纽约市DSA制定选举战略的一年，这将有助于为近十年后的Mamdani市长竞选奠定基础。
“[DSA]在纽约组织得很好。很专注。它清楚地知道自己想做什么，有能力做什么，”Krieg说。“我认为情况并不总是如此，但这几年来已经发生了变化。”
然后在2018年，DSA支持的亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯当选为美国众议院议员，证明了强有力的敲门操作在选举民主社会主义政治家方面可以走多远。
但当2021年纽约市长选举到来时，DSA没有支持一名候选人，尽管该组织在此前几年积累了大量的拉票基础设施。
“我认为2021年的问题是没有像Zohran这样的候选人，”Krieg说。
当纽约市DSA决定是否支持一名候选人时，他们会考虑该候选人与他们的意识形态和愿景有多一致，以及是否有一条通往胜利的道路，根据Mausser的说法。毛瑟补充说，到2021年，这些因素就不存在了。
“当我们开始与Zohran谈论跑步时，这是一个不同的命题，”Mausser说。“他曾与我们密切合作，作为组织者和当选官员，我们对他非常了解，他致力于将民主社会主义价值观带入市长办公室。”
在Mamdani初选获胜后，他现在努力确保自己在大选中获胜。自从市长埃里克·亚当斯(Eric Adams)放弃竞选连任以来，这项任务可能变得更加艰巨，进一步缩小了政治光谱中位于马姆达尼右侧的候选人范围。反过来，Mamdani在最近几个月也远离了国家DSA平台，告诉记者他的平台是他网站上的平台。
罗默说:“佐伦有点疏远自己，这当然是他做出的战术选择。”。“但他不同意一些DSA的东西，就像，他能做的最DSA的事情。他当然不同意某些东西——我们都不同意。”
根据Romer的说法，作为一个民主组织，DSA成员并不期望在所有问题上都达成一致，而是被鼓励提出和讨论不同的想法。
随着马姆达尼继续在民意测验中领先话题转到了执政上，对于那些认为他的候选资格可能会为其他民主社会主义者打开大门的粉丝来说，这种风险不可能更高了。
也有人不支持马姆达尼的观点。在本周早些时候的市长论坛上，前纽约州州长安德鲁·科莫(Andrew Cuomo)是马姆达尼的竞选对手，他在民主党初选中输给马姆达尼后以独立身份参选，批评了马姆达尼的议程，并声称这对纽约市有害，他告诉观众，“我们是受监管的资本主义经济。我们不是社会主义者。”
Krieg说:“(马姆达尼)作为市长的成功或失败将被公平或不公平地用作衡量民主社会主义者和民主社会主义政治家执政能力的一种方式。”。
至于马姆达尼的支持者，他们对大选获胜充满信心，对市长选举充满希望——对他们来说，这场运动的未来可能就取决于此。
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani could be New York City's next mayor. Here’s how it happened
When Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, Grace Mausser had just graduated from college.
"I was very much a part of the liberal establishment -- more on the progressive side -- but totally believed that Hillary Clinton was going to win," said the 31-year-old Houston native. "Like millions of other people, I was totally shocked and really dismayed."
Searching for a way to turn her disappointment into action, Mausser recalled the energy behind Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign that year -- and how he referred to himself as a democratic socialist on the campaign trail.
Mausser found the Democratic Socialists of America and became involved in her local New York City chapter, where she met then-New York State Assembly candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has been a member of DSA since 2017.
And while Mausser herself would go on to rise through the ranks of New York progressive politics, eventually becoming a co-chair of New York City DSA, Mamdani would become the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, bringing the organization that endorsed and supported his run further into the national spotlight.
Shortly after Mamdaniwon the primary in June, Trump took to social media to call the 33-year-old "a 100% Communist Lunatic." Trump and other Republicans have continued to refer to Mamdani as a "communist" throughout the election cycle.
Mamdani has emphasized that he is not a communist, includinglast Wednesday on ABC's "The View,"where he told co-hosts that he was a democratic socialist.
Democratic socialism is a political movement that calls for the establishment of a decentralized socialist economic system within a democratically run political system. It differs from socialism, which is sometimes associated with communism and does not necessarily include a democratic form of governance.
Because of that, socialism is often used to describe the political and economic system of countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, and the term can politically alienate some voters due to its association with these countries.
However,arecent Gallup pollfound that attitudes toward socialism may be changing among left-leaning Americans, with 66% of Democrats now havinga positive view ofsocialism, up from 50% in 2010.
"I think people are stuck in a very old way of thinking. You know, Trump's in his 70s. Maybe he still thinks we're in the Cold War," said Mausser, referencing the Soviet Union's promotion of the socialist ideology in the years following World War II.
"There have been socialists in America since the term was invented," said Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University and the author of the book,"What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party." "Socialism during the Cold War, for most Americans, meant the Soviet Union, or China, or Cuba or North Korea. It meant a tyrannical, one-party state. And of course, most Americans didn't want any part of that."
Kazin says that socialists used to run under their own political party labels -- and for the most part, never expected to actually win any elections.
"It was an educational campaign," said Kazin. "You were trying to tell people what socialism was."
But in 1982, two socialist organizations merged to form the Democratic Socialists of America, under the leadership of Michael Harrington, who had a different vision for how anti-capitalists would engage in the American political system.
"Harrington's vision was that socialists would make their influence felt not operating as a separate party," said Maurice Isserman, a professor of history at Hamilton College and the author of the biography,"The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington." "They would make their ideas more popular and their influence greater by working within the Democratic Party electorally."
Harrington's original vision for DSA -- perhaps best understood through his founding phrase, "the left wing of the possible" -- is still reflected in DSA today.
"DSA is using a strategy of pursuing the Democratic ballot line to show that socialists can govern," said Mausser. "We want to win elections. This is where we break with a group like the Green Party, that has its own ballot line, but has not mounted many successes."
Megan Romer, a co-chair of the national Democratic Socialists of America, said thoughts around socialism have changed.
"Sixty years ago, people heard socialism and thought Stalin, and I think that people hear socialism now and understand that it means something very different. And it can mean what they want it to mean because that's what democratic and collective control is," Romer said.
When DSA was founded at the onset of Ronald Reagan's presidency, left-wing groups were not in the political or cultural position to be able to mount successful electoral campaigns. But with the 21st century came the 2008 financial crisis -- as well as the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements that emerged from it -- and Americans began questioning the economic establishment from both the right and the left.
"There was a sense -- looking back now, especially -- that politics was really cleaving over economic issues," said Greg Krieg, a Democratic strategist and media director of the New York-based political consulting firm, Slingshot Strategies.
According to Krieg, those on the right embraced the Tea Party movement -- which eventually paved the way for the success of Trump's 2016 campaign -- while those on the left set the stage for Sanders' political rise.
After the 2016 election, DSA's numbers skyrocketed -- and so did its political capacity. According to Mausser, 2016 was the year that New York City DSA developed the electoral strategy that would help lay the groundwork for Mamdani's mayoral race almost a decade later.
"[DSA] is well put together in New York. It's focused. It has clear ideas of what it wants to do and what it has the capacity to do," Krieg said. "I think that wasn't always the case, but that's changed over the years."
Then in 2018, the DSA-endorsed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was elected to the United States House of Representatives, proving how far a strong door-knocking operation can go in electing democratic socialist politicians.
But when the 2021 New York City mayoral election came along, DSA didn't endorse a candidate, despite the fact that the organization had amassed a large canvassing infrastructure in the years preceding it.
"I think the issue in 2021 was that there was no candidate like Zohran," Krieg said.
When New York City DSA decides whether or not to endorse a candidate, they consider how aligned the candidate is with their ideology and vision, as well as whether or not there is a path to victory, according to Mausser. In 2021, those factors weren't there, Mausser added.
"When we started talking with Zohran about running, though, that was a different proposition," Mausser said. "Someone who had collaborated with us closely, who we know very deeply both as an organizer and as an elected official, and who was committed to bringing democratic socialist values into the mayoral office."
After Mamdani's primary victory, he now works to try to secure his path to victory in the general election.It is a task that may have become more daunting since Mayor Eric Adams dropped his reelection bid, further narrowing the field of candidates that sit to the right of Mamdani on the political spectrum. In turn, Mamdani has distanced himself from the national DSA platform in recent months, telling reporters that his platform is the one that is on his website.
"Zohran has distanced himself a bit, and that is certainly a tactical choice he's made," Romer said. "But him disagreeing with some DSA stuff is, like, the most DSA thing he could do. Of course he disagrees with stuff -- we all do."
According to Romer, as a democratic organization, DSA members are not expected to agree on everything, but are instead encouraged to present and debate different ideas.
As Mamdani continues tolead in the polls, the conversation turns to governing, where the stakes could not be higher for fans who view his candidacy as one that could open the door for other democratic socialists.
Others don’t support Mamdani’s views. At a mayoral forum earlier this week, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo -- Mamdani's opponent in the race who is running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary -- criticized Mamdani's agenda and asserted that it would be harmful to New York City, telling the audience, "We are a regulated capitalist economy. We are not socialists."
"[Mamdani's] success or his failure as mayor will be fairly or unfairly used as a way of measuring the ability of democratic socialists and democratic socialist politicians to govern," Krieg said.
As for Mamdani's supporters, they are confident of a general election win and hopeful for a triumphant mayoralty -- for them, the future of the movement just might depend on it.
