Democratic Socialist Revolution Brewing in New York Is Heading for Red Nebraska

In the months since Zohran Mamdani took office this year, his fellow democratic socialists have rolled up dozens of primary victories across the country, inspiring electoral hopes for socialists in the reddest of states and bringing his policies along with them even to Nebraska.Joyce Vondrasek, a 35-year-old who works for a bike-sharing company and aspires to be elected to the state senate, looks to New York City and Mr. Mamdani as a North Star. “I love him,” he gushes. “I truly, I have a problem where I’m a very angry person. I’m a gay man so there’s lots to be angry about in Nebraska, but I use Mamdani as an example, and I emulate his positivity,” he says. “I try to stop before I say something. I think, how do I stay positive?”In addition to Mamdani’s good humor, Mr. Vondrasek plans to bring a lot of New York to his home state and a bluer district of Omaha where he thinks he has a chance. For one thing, he plans trains and subways in the older Eastern part of town famous for the College World Series and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett. “I think it’s just easier to do it underground,” he says.But in his vision, a polity that cares more about Cornhusker football than Karl Marx and where all state-wide offices are held by Republicans, the state should raise income taxes, impose rent control and build public housing. “I think there’s a strong argument to be made for the redistribution of wealth in this country, you know, by force with electoral measures like (California’s wealth tax).”In a state that just moved to a $15 minimum wage, Mr. Vondrasek wants $25, $30 or more even if it shocks people. “There’s always going to be (unemployment) when you raise a wage like that, it’s always going to be a short-term hit where businesses do have to pay their employees more and they’re going to feel it in their bank account,” he said. But “the very next cycle, very next two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, all of those employees have more money. All those workers have more money. They go out and spend it and they stimulate the economy.”For all the Democratic Socialists’ talk of democracy and their recent electoral success, the socialists in the hinterland aren’t quite as polished as out East. Mr. Vondrasek sees a time when the voting booth might not be their only tool to change America. “ Asked what’s the difference between a Democratic Socialist and a Communist, while sitting in one of Omaha’s most bougie coffee houses, the friendly hourly-worker answers without hesitation, “A Democrat socialist is a person who, in theory, believes that a future socialist economy is achievable through slow Democratic reforms over time, a peaceful revolution, if you will.”“A communist is a person who believes that the capitalists probably aren’t going to let us have a peaceful revolution and things are going to have to get feisty,” he says. “I am a socialist.I run openly as a socialist, (but) I believe in the words of John F. Kennedy who said, if you refuse to let a peaceful revolution happen, you’re going to get a violent revolution.”

Democratic Socialist Revolution Brewing in New York Is Heading for Red Nebraska

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