(DCNF)—Former President Barack Obama suggested on “Pod Save America” on Thursday that Democrats should welcome socialists as integral to their coalition.
Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was projected to have won his race by a significant margin on Tuesday. Obama said on the podcast episode, which was posted to YouTube on Friday, that Democrats should not implement “litmus tests” and that Mamdani was “part of a vision for the future.”
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“Tuesday was nice, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. And your task is going to be not to impose litmus tests,” Obama said. “We had [Democratic Virginia Gov.-elect] Abigail Spanberger win and we had Zohran Mandani win and they are all part of a vision for the future. Our job is to say that we want everybody engaged.”
“And we want to have a conversation about how to make sure that every person in this country is treated with dignity and respect, and there are ladders of opportunity, and that there’s the possibility of community, and that we’re getting along not in some cliché, phonied way, but in a genuine, deep way where we recognize, yeah, we have differences, and yes, there are fights that are going to have to be fought, but that deep down there is something core in us that we have in common that is extraordinary,” he continued.
Mamdani won on a platform of hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy New Yorkers, freezing rents, free buses, city-owned grocery stores and free childcare.
Moreover, only 42% of Democrats said they had a positive perception of capitalism, compared to 66% who held a positive perception of socialism, Gallup found in a poll released on Sept. 8. NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza warned on his YouTube channel on Sept. 9 that Democrats backing socialism could doom the party in 2028.
“I guess it’s not terribly surprising, but I do think if I am a Democrat who wants to win the 2028 election … That would worry me candidly because socialism broadly will not sell,” Cillizza said. “You can call it democratic socialism. You can call it whatever you want. But the idea of socialism will not sell in the country.”
However, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin also asserted on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Aug. 6 that he believed accepting socialists was crucial to the Democratic Party’s electoral viability.
“We have lots of people in that tent from all of the different ideological wings, from conservative Democrats to centrists, to progressives, to these new leftists,” Martin said. “And the reality is is I’ve always said that you win through addition, not subtraction. You don’t win by pushing people out of your coalition, you win by bringing people into your coalition.”
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