Why Socialism Is Back in American Politics
Channel: Bloomberg Television
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Read a transcript preview of “Why Socialism Is Back in American Politics” from Bloomberg Television, uploaded on 2026-11-01.
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Language: English (original, creator captions)
[0:00] -Let's do this thing.
[0:01] -[Chanting]
[0:04] Westin: There was a time not so long ago
[0:06] when a candidate saying they were a socialist
[0:08] would be disqualifying, but no longer.
[0:11] -I think this emerging left for sure represents
[0:14] a lot of different viewpoints.
[0:15] Westin: About one third of Democrats
[0:17] now view what they regard
[0:18] as democratic socialist leaders positively.
[0:21] And the largest socialist movement in U.S. history,
[0:24] the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA,
[0:28] has more than 120,000 members,
[0:31] up from just 6,000 a decade ago.
[0:34] But why is capitalism itself now up for discussion?
[0:37] And why are so many young people moving away
[0:40] from free market economics?
[0:42] -Capitalism often has crises.
[0:45] The point is that it adapts each time
[0:48] it has a crisis.
[0:50] There are more truly non-capitalist alternatives
[0:53] being considered at present,
[0:55] and they have been an arguably
[0:58] the latest model of capitalism really fell in 2008.
[1:03] -The incumbents are getting more and more entrenched.
[1:05] The concentration of power.
[1:07] I think it's this perversion of capitalism
[1:10] that we have seen today,
[1:11] and this is having real consequences.
[1:13] -I think there's a real growth of socialism
[1:15] in the country,
[1:16] and I'm not using it as a boogeyman.
[1:18] I'm saying there are folks who really believe
[1:20] that capitalism is a flawed system
[1:24] and that redistribution of wealth should be our goal
[1:26] and that people who have wealth no matter
[1:28] how they got it are just the enemy.
[1:30] Westin: In its bylaws, the DSA's website spells out
[1:34] that the party's purpose is to, quote,
[1:36] "...reject an economic order base