Why Socialism Looks Sexy When Your Groceries Don’t

Socialism is on the move, and not just in campus bullshit sessions. Seattle looks to have elected a socialist mayor. New York City went ahead and made a socialist its mayor outright. If that sentence makes you want to throw your remote, pause and ask the better question. Why is this working right now for a lot of voters who don’t own a house, have student debt breathing down their necks, and feel priced out of the future?

Let’s get the receipts on the headlines. New York City elected Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who ran on rent freezes, a higher minimum wage, and free bus transit. Multiple outlets called it, including The Guardian and CBS New York, and even Decision Desk HQ flagged the projection in real time. (The Guardian) Seattle, meanwhile, saw an overtime ballot count that flipped the race late for progressive organizer Katie Wilson. Local outlets tracked the ballot drops, Decision Desk HQ even retracted an early call for the incumbent, and as of November 12, coverage said Wilson cleared Harrell. That late count is normal in Washington’s vote-by-mail system, where ballots postmarked by Election Day keep arriving and are signature-verified, not ID checked at a booth. (KUOW)

I hear this at town halls all the time. Voters want a “fighter.” Fight whom, how, and to what end? We just lived through a 43-day federal shutdown that was essentially a professional wrestling match for C-SPAN. Everyone took turns cutting promos while federal workers waited to pay rent, and SNAP recipients worried about kids with empty bellies. It ended on November 12 when the President signed a bill to reopen the government. That’s not theory, that’s the Washington Post recap, timestamped. (The Washington Post) If you are 24, trying to buy your first car and your first carton of eggs, you look at that circus and think the performers are fine. It’s the audience that keeps getting the bill.

Now add prices that never cooled fast enough. The government’s own numbers say grocery inflation is still nibbling at the paycheck. The food at home index was up about 2.7 percent over the last year in September. You feel that when beef or beverages creep higher. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Housing. Mortgage rates are still north of 6 percent. Freddie Mac had the 30-year at 6.22 percent the week of November 6. That is better than last year’s peaks, but it isn’t 3 percent. Home prices by Case Shiller are off the pandemic rocket ship yet remain elevated. The national index sat around 330 in August, and annual gains were about 1.5 percent, meaning nominally up and still painful when your wage growth is modest. (Freddie Mac) Real earnings ticked up 1.1 percent year over year in August, which is good, but it is not the kind of raise that makes a starter home magically appear. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Meanwhile, the stock market headlines brag about a strong year. The S&P 500 was up more than 16 percent year to date in October. That is terrific for the chunk of Americans who already own stocks. It does not change the rent due on Friday. (S&P Global)

So the vibe is rigged. That is the fertile soil where the word “fight” grows into policy promises that call themselves socialism or democratic socialism. Pollsters see the shift. Gallup’s September release put positive views of capitalism at 54 percent nationally, a new low in their time series, with socialism holding at 39 percent. Among Democrats, the split flips entirely. The Associated Press highlighted the same survey cut. For younger adults, the skepticism of capitalism is even sharper, and outside groups have found majorities of under 30s warming to the s word. You may hate those numbers. They are still numbers. (Gallup.com)

Seattle’s count pattern deserves a note because it fuels the “mysterious late dump” narrative. Washington runs universal mail voting, which means the state keeps counting valid ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as the postmark is good. Workers verify signatures against voter files. Courts just upheld that process this year. That is why King County’s late drops swing races. It isn’t a conspiracy. It is the system’s design. You can like it or change the law, but pretending it is new is performative. (WA Secretary of State)

Here is the inconvenient truth for my fellow conservatives. Some of the left’s fighters are winning because they are naming the pain faster and promising relief simply. Rent freeze. Free transit. Higher minimum wage. Taxes on the rich. That frame is easy to understand on a phone screen. And when the right answers with stock charts or a shutdown speech, we lose the kitchen table. We also keep outsourcing our fix to vibes about growth instead of planks that people can see on their street.

Now, steelman the other side fairly. City hall can’t rewrite the federal tax code, and municipal socialism often slams into math. A rent freeze without more supply can choke construction and push small landlords to sell. Free transit is not free. Someone pays. And higher local taxes can chase the employers who hire the same working class we want to help. None of that means do nothing. It means design doesn’t care about slogans. It cares about constraints.

So what now. If we want the twenty something who is living with two roommates and driving a 2011 Corolla to hear us again, we need to fight for them in ways they can cash. Start with the housing choke points. Legalize more duplexes, triplexes, and backyard units in high demand corridors. Streamline permitting to a one stop shot clock. If a project meets code, it gets a yes inside 90 days or the fee meter runs backward. Allow pre approved infill plans everywhere that already has the pipes and wires. Pair it with starter home finance that actually works at 6 percent. You want a real pro family policy. Make it possible to buy a 1,200 square foot house near work without selling a kidney.

Next, hit the grocery aisle head on. Cut junk fees in the supply chain. Get truck permitting and port throughput unclogged. Drop tariffs that boomerang into food prices. Keep pressure on the monopoly games in food processing. When BLS says food at home is still rising, we need policies that whack the friction instead of tweeting about it. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

On wages, chase the kitchen table, not the boardroom. Expand apprenticeships that pay from day one in the trades, energy, and advanced manufacturing. Fast-track licensed reciprocity across states so people can go where the jobs are without a paperwork wall. Make work pay by lifting the payroll tax bite for young low earners and swapping it with a broader base elsewhere. Real earnings are finally up a hair, which is a great sign, but the goal is a raise you can taste by Wednesday. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

On energy, lower the cost of everything by admitting physics into the room. Drill baby drill, build transmission, streamline siting for the power sources that actually keep the lights on, and stop pretending subsidies are science. Different clowns, same circus. But the circus runs on kilowatts and diesel.

And a final point about that word “fight.” Protecting your God given and constitutionally protected rights is not performative. It is my job description and it is the oath. But voters hear fight as action they can feel. Reopening a rec center faster than the city next door feels like fight. Paving the road in May instead of August feels like fight. Approving the starter homes and keeping the park safe feels like fight. If the right wants to win back the kids who think socialism sounds like empathy with teeth, then deliver empathy with receipts. Facts over fan clubs.

New York City went with a socialist. Seattle appears to have done the same. We can whine about the refs, or we can build a roster that plays offense again. Start with housing, groceries, paychecks, and a government that works when the cameras are off. The receipts are there. We just need to give people a bill they can actually pay.