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Comment by mancerayder | Hacker News Reader

The DSA has a narrow agenda: Israel is number one, second is immigration, racial and gender issues, maybe a distant other wish is actual socialist principles. In other words, it truly feels as though the left in the U.S., just as the right has done for years, narrowly focuses on culture and social issues... When economic issues should be the focus. "The rent is too high" stuff in NYC is just dressing - they only touched the rent stabilized units, which is half of the rental stock, and almost every mayor limits those increases. And it doesn't help anything.

What happened to "Medicare for All" being #1? How did we get here, that Israel and ICE are number 1? Did we not learn from the Right about 'Wedge Issues'?

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Can anyone explain why they're so excited about immigration? It means downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on rents. Yet they claim they're doing it for the good of the current US residents. I can't figure it out.

The immigration issue is very much tied to race, for the DSA and much of the Progressive movement. Let us just say it is not Ukrainian immigrants they're losing sleep over protecting.

Really? Because in practice DSA candidates seem very focused on bread and butter issues like affordability, housing, and M4A.

Like, Mamdani was the only NY Dem not talking about Israel, your description is seriously baffling.

Everyone in his entourage was talking about Israel as one of their top activist concerns, including his wife, and the new folks he just helped get elected. And he made notable 'statements' by avoiding certain events and other things.

That's entirely besides the point - the folks who voted for him voted for him in part because of his Israel stance. I'm sure you know he's in the DSA, and the DSA https://www.dsausa.org/statements/until-palestinian-liberati....

I hope with an open mind you are no longer 'seriously baffled.'

Do you seriously think the bread and butter issues contributed nothing to his appeal? Palestine I'm sure is important but it's easy to dismiss affordability issues if they don't play a large part in your life.

No, I/P is a huge purity test for the DSA. They explicitly do not endorse people, for example AOC, for having any nuance in their position whatsoever. They are looney tunes.

https://dsaemerge.org/2026/04/05/no-iron-dome-no-exceptions-...

https://www.dsausa.org/statements/status-of-dsa-national-end...

Your description of the DSA is completely unrecognizable from my experience at local DSA meetings.

Nobody in my area cares much about Israel (outside of the handful of months between Biden dropping out and Harris losing, I can’t recall it coming up). Currently we’re organizing for food banks (SNAP cuts have really hurt our community) and trying to prepare for the chaos of Haitians and others losing TPS and possibly getting deported.

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