Democratic Socialism is gaining new traction across the country, but as it turns out, Virginia was ahead of the trend.
The surprise election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York is putting a new spotlight on a corner of American politics that many people are just now learning about for the first time: Democratic Socialism. Virginia was ahead of the curve on this trend, electing Democratic Socialist Lee Carter to the General Assembly last year. Here’s the freshman delegate defining what Democratic Socialism means to him:
“Socialism just means an economy that is owned and operated by the people who actually do the work. So when you’ve got businesses that are owned and operated by the employees they’re not going to do certain things like shipping their own jobs overseas to save money for the inventors.”
Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says young people like Lee Carter, who is 31, don’t carry a lot of baggage from the Cold War about the word socialism.
“For millennials, socialism is about dealing with the increasing costs of education, dealing with a lack of health care, dealing with a government that often doesn’t do things to make their lives easier.”
This is not the first time socialism has been a force in Virginia politics. Back in 1913 election for governor, a Socialist candidate won five percent of the vote. By way of context, that’s significantly more support than the Libertarian candidate for governor got last year, which was only one percent of the vote.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
