Of course Darializa Avila Chevalier slams fellow Dems for denouncing socialism

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a New York Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, slammed a few of her fellow Democrats and future colleagues for daring to vote with Republicans to condemn socialism . This is not exactly surprising, since Avila Chevalier is herself a self-described democratic socialist — one whose radical agenda and worldview will make her among the most dangerous ideologues ever elected to government in the U.S.

Following the vote earlier this week, in which two Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, voted with Republicans on a rules package that contained a denunciation of socialism in all its forms, Avila Chevalier lashed out. She wrote on X :

“Democrats love talking about a ‘big tent’, but then they vote with Republicans hell-bent on destroying our democracy and stripping Black and brown people of the right to vote. Today, some Democrats voted with Republicans to bring a resolution condemning democratic socialism to the House floor, and then again to pass it. This resolution was aimed squarely at democratic socialists like me, paired with renewed support for the SAVE Act, a dangerous bill that would require a passport or birth certificate to vote and could strip millions of Americans, including Black voters and seniors without birth records, of their right to vote.”

“Here’s the truth,” she continues: “A big tent doesn’t pay your rent, lower your grocery bill, or take on the corporations bleeding our country dry. Democratic socialism does. Democratic socialism, at its core, is simple: working people deserve power over their own lives — in their wages, their housing, their healthcare, and their communities. That’s not radical. It’s what my neighbors Uptown and in the Bronx ask for every single day.”

The statement continues but you get the gist of it. Avila Chevalier believes that democratic socialism is just working people having power over their own lives, in terms of their wages, their housing, and their health care. And she says making common cause with Republicans — i.e. a big tent — isn’t what pays your rent or lowers your grocery bill. Democratic socialism is.

This is so wrong it’s genuinely sad to me that someone about to be elected to government can actually hold this view.

Democratic socialism doesn’t give you power over your life, free market capitalism does: you work, for money, and use money to buy the things you need. Socialism, on the other hand, is a system that gives some people power over other people’s lives. The power to set prices and control the economy, to redirect resources and decide what should built, how much, where, what’s fair for you to keep. It’s a system that in practice gives a government bureaucracy the power to police your life. It’s ultimately a system of disempowerment of the people, because it negates your self-ownership. You belong to the state, or to the party, or to the bureaucrats that control the ruling class.

Capitalism, the system Avila Chevalier’s democratic socialists would like to destroy, makes everyone more prosperous, healthier and freer. That has been the experience of every single society that has moved toward laissez faire economic policies: huge improvements in the standards of living. In contrast, every country that implements socialism ends up poorer and more repressive.

What would happen if we became a socialist country is not some big question mark — we know exactly what would happen, because we have observed it happening time and time again. The economy needs to be unfettered by central planners in order to grow and deliver the goods and services we expect.

Moreover, Avila Chevalier’s other ideas are just as nutty as her economic ones. The DSA, of which she is a member, calls for the overthrow of the Constitution, the abolition of prisons, and the end of work: all your needs will be met by a socialist state. It’s absurd and dystopian.

I commend the Democrats who voted to condemn socialism, because it shouldn’t even be a question: Yes, of course we are opposed to socialism. We are also opposed to fascism, and communism, and Nazism, and any over form of collectivism. That’s all socialism is: a slightly different shade of collectivism. Beware its adherents, and beware them seizing actual power.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.