Leader of Democratic Socialists of America Responds to ‘Democrat Socialist Party’ Resolution

Created: May 13, 2009 17:46 | Last updated: July 31, 2020 00:00

I just talked to Frank Llewellyn, the national director of the Democratic Socialists of America, who was understandably nonplussed by the Republican National Committee’s “Democrat Socialist Party” resolution.

“It’s objectionable,” said Llewellyn, “because they’re giving socialism a bad name by associating it with the Democrats, who are the second-most capitalist party in the world. The election of this president, sadly, hasn’t changed that.”

Llewellyn read through the resolution and knocked Republicans for defining “bailouts to Wall Street” as socialism. “This is more evidence of the extremely shallow and surreal discussion of socialism that has surfaced in American politics,” he said. “It’s nothing more than name-calling. The authors demonstrate how little they know about what 21st century American socialism is all about. These people make the same mistake that their ancestors did during the New Deal. They mistake a president trying to save capitalism from itself for a president trying to transform capitalism into something different.”

All in all, said Llewellyn, it’s an example of how far Republicans have fallen and why “they’re not going to gain much in the next election cycle.”