Megan Romer, a national co-chairwoman of the Democratic Socialists of America, has drawn attention for her refusal to call Cuba a dictatorship.
asserted
Romer → draw → Cuba
Instead, she claims that “Cubans have access to their democracy in a way that we do not.”
uncertain
we → claim → way
Romer additionally opposes continued U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, saying that the DSA “do not believe in pouring U.S. money, military weapons into anything” because “we don’t think it makes it better anywhere.”
asserted
it → oppose → anything
She then dodged the question of how Ukrainians are supposed to defend themselves.
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Ukrainians → dodge → themselves
The DSA’s reputation for ill-considered foreign policy positions was further fueled on what would have been former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday this month.
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what → consider → positions
The DSA praised the dictator as a “stalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle and self-determination for the Global South,” while accusing Secretary of State Marco Rubio of waging a “genocidal war” against the Cuban people.
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DSA → praise → people
When one of DSA’s national co-chairs was subsequently pressed on CNN about the tribute, he defended it by pointing to inequality before Castro’s rule, the Communist regime’s healthcare system, and the effects of American sanctions.
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he → press → sanctions
He acknowledged the regime’s repression only in passing.
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He → acknowledge → passing
The challenge is that these individuals represent a rising political force rather than the whims of a college protester.
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individuals → represent → protester
DSA candidates have won numerous primaries.
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candidates → win → primaries
Indeed, one of its members, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, now governs New York City!
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one → govern → City
It’s a notable change from the past.
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It → ’ → past
Traditionally, left-wing Democrats had sought to replicate Scandinavia’s example of prosperous democracies with private property protections and generous welfare states.
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Democrats → seek → protections
Socialism, they insisted, meant universal healthcare and stronger unions, not Marxism or one-party rule.
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they → insist → healthcare
Today, however, in their praise of Castro, anti-imperialist language and deep hostility to capitalism, the DSA is moving the goalposts.
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DSA → move → goalposts
On paper, it’s odd that this movement has momentum.
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movement → ’ → momentum
After all, its imperfections notwithstanding, the U.S. remains the freest, richest, and most socially mobile society ever built.
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U.S. → remain → ?
In the 20th century, European writers pondered why intelligent people in free societies fell in love with political systems they would have found intolerable at home.
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they → ponder → home
George Orwell attributed this dynamic to the luxury of liberalism.
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Orwell → attribute → liberalism
The British intellectuals drawn to Soviet communism had grown up in what he called the land of habeas corpus, where purges, secret police, and imprisonment without trial were remote enough to enable romanticization of the broader Soviet project.
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purges → draw → project
“They can swallow totalitarianism,” Orwell wrote, “because they have no experience of anything except liberalism.”
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they → swallow → liberalism
He noted that “Hunger, hardship, solitude, exile, war, prison, persecution, manual labor,” were only words for these individuals.
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Hunger → note → individuals
The appeal for communism isn’t ultimately about the policies it entails, however, but rather communism’s emotional charge.
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it → entail → policies
French philosopher Raymond Aron called it the “poetry of revolution,” where the upheaval feels noble and thrilling compared to the dullness of American democracy.
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upheaval → call → democracy
Once older sources of meaning, whether country, church, or family, had been discredited, radical ideology could step in as a substitute faith.
uncertain
ideology → discredit → faith
Israel is judged as an evil American project, while Hamas is explained as a product of just grievance.
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Hamas → judge → grievance
In the U.S., DSA viewpoints and the partner of anti-American rhetoric also offer a potent form of virtue signaling self-promotion: a way of proving that one is not like ordinary Americans, that one is unblemished by their capitalist assumptions or tolerance for unjust government action.
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one → offer → action
It offers moral distinction that allows its purveyors not to rise within the country, but to rise above it.
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purveyors → offer → it
Again, it is easy to hold that view in a society where questions of survival are largely abstract.
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questions → hold → survival
And crucially, where the luxury of rejecting the existing system depends, in significant part, on being protected by it.
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luxury → reject → it
America is a much, much better place to live than Communist Cuba.
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America → live → Cuba
Cuba’s healthcare system is decrepit, and its people lack basic goods and services.
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people → lack → goods
And while the U.S. embargo has certainly made these conditions more pronounced, the ultimate cause of Cuban misery is not America but the corrupt authoritarianism of its geriatric regime.
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cause → make → regime
While she insists that compassion drives her politics, the lives of those who live — or have lived — under communism attest to a very different reality.
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who → insist → reality
