It's not hard to minimize today's national coming-out party for the Democratic Socialists of America. Yes, the DSA caucus in the House of Representatives is poised to quadruple in size. But growing from just two members (New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan's Rashida Tlaib) to around eight will only achieve the socialists' numerical parity with the Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus.
But that's an overly DSA-centric view of the socialistic left. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I—Vt.), the universally acknowledged godfather of the movement, is not technically a member of the DSA. Neither is the candidate who today is setting the most red hearts aflutter, Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, a "socialist in all but name," as Reason's Robby Soave has pointed out. You will never run out of hairs to split when assessing who is or is not a member, or national endorsee, or local-only endorsee, or a former member who nonetheless got endorsed by New York Mayor and DSA kingmaker Zohran Mamdani, or a former endorsee who got excommunicated because he didn't sign onto the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
