Democrats, get ready for the Third Red Scare, which will spotlight supposed Socialist influence (DSA) in the Democratic Party. Never mind that DSA members will hold about 10 seats of 435 seats in the U.S. House of Reps after the midterms, if that. There have probably been more DSA supporters in congress in the past, and the U.S. did not go socialist. There is also a very thorny issue for Republicans, concerning Trump’s shameless toadying up to Russian leader Putin, as depicted in numerous “Putin’s poodle” political cartoons. Now we have “Why Republicans struggle to prove the danger of socialism” by Marc Short at the Washington Post, which documents unbridled government intervention in our economy by the Trump Administration and its GOP enablers. An excerpt: “The problem for Republicans this November is that they are not presenting a clear contrast between the failures of socialism and the blessings of free markets. Rather, they are increasingly adopting big-government policies and flexing federal power, while muddying the waters between their competing visions for the country’s future…Under Trump 2, elected Republicans have largely fallen in line behind the administration’s increasingly interventionist economic agenda, including the recent proposal of $5,000 victory checks for every American adult. There are calls to expand entitlement programs and impose federal regulations capping credit card fees. The administration’s policies have contributed to a record national debt. The government has taken 32 equity stakes in private companies, assessed price controls on American pharmaceutical companies and enacted unconstitutional tariffs that might have resulted in roughly 900,000 fewer American jobs being created. These economic policies are traditionally associated with the creativity of the Democratic Party and socialism — not the sound economics and free markets of the Republican Party…Rather than returning to the free-market foundations of the first administration, Trump 2 is determined to chart a new economic course rooted in more government, not less.” As Steve Benen put it in a post at MSNOW, “Throughout his second term, Trump has staked out an agenda that includes government ownership stakes of private companies; generous checks handed out to every American adult(alongside government-imposed restrictions on where the money can be spent); federal intervention in the bond market; greater government control over the economy; and proposed government subsidies to certain Americans who don’t work…Twice in recent months, Trump himself has boasted that he would be “the greatest communist in history.” It’s a claim worth keeping in mind as the Republican warns of a communist threat while emulating communist tactics.”
From “Trump sees three new GOP defections in House vote to end Iran war” by Sarah Ferris at CNN Politics: “The House on Tuesday voted to approve a measure that would require President Donald Trump to end his war with Iran, offering a potent political rebuke of the administration’s handling of the war just weeks before the midterms…This is now the third time that the House — led by Democrats, but with help from at least a few Republicans — has ordered Trump to withdraw troops from Iran. But Democrats argue this vote is their most important push yet, coming as one of the chamber’s last votes before the November elections…Seven Republicans backed the measure, up from four GOP votes for the last two resolutions…Three new Republicans voted with Democrats on Tuesday’s vote: Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, who both represent competitive seats in Iowa, and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who is leaving Congress after this term…The Republicans who had previously voted in favor are Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania…“I will not support another open-ended war. We can defend Americans, pressure Iran, and pursue peace while ensuring Congress fulfills its constitutional responsibility,” Nunn said in a post on X after the vote.”
Nor will Republicans welcome the report, “Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here:Trump officials say the oil-market disruption is temporary, but Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight” by Benoit Morenne and Collin Eaton at The Wall Street Journal Journal: “American oil executives warned for months that the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was bound to cause a fuel crisis. Now, they say it is here…Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate…“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron CVX 2.64%increase; up pointing triangle Chief Executive Mike Wirth said Friday at an energy conference in Austin, Texas. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”…It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly. “I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” he said…Veteran energy advisers say that with no resolution to the Iran war in sight, the situation risks spinning out of control. Diesel prices have soared to a record $6.23 a gallon and gasoline prices, which slipped below $4 a gallon this summer, have rebounded to $4.32. Some energy analysts say they have been fielding investor questions about when consumers pinched by the high prices will start pulling back on new purchases.” More here.
Democrats should also be encouraged by “Report: The Working-Class Vote Is Not Lost” by the Editors of Jacobin. As they write: “A new survey experiment from the Center for Working-Class Politics and Joan C. Williams finds that a six-part formula can lift Democrats’ working-class vote share by nearly 11 points. It also adds nearly 8 points among the party’s affluent, college-educated base. More than 40,000 respondents evaluated nearly 800,000 hypothetical candidate profiles, making the study one of the largest of its kind. The project was supported by Jacobin and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. The formula boils down to two imperatives: lead with working-class economics and connect with working-class values…Earlier this summer, Jared Abbott of the Center for Working-Class Politics (CWCP) and Joan C. Williams of the Equality Action Center (EAC) released “The Left’s Coalition Crisis,” a study of working-class and college-educated voters that showed how Democrats could hone their policy messaging to win back working-class voters without losing their college-educated base…Their second study, produced by Jacobin and fielded between April and June 2026, moves beyond testing messages in isolation and puts voters in a virtual voting booth…Respondents worked through a series of head-to-head matchups and chose which candidate they would vote for, or neither. Because every trait — demographics, class background, rhetoric, issue priorities, and economic and cultural positions — was assigned at random, the researchers can isolate how much each one moves the vote. The design also does something surveys rarely do: every matchup pits a complete Democratic candidate against a complete Republican one. Since party identification decides the large majority of votes, building partisanship into the experiment makes the estimates far more realistic, and more conservative, than those of most studies of this kind.” More here.
