Why the rise in popularity of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), especially in city and local elections? 

It’s not the viability or sustainability of their policies.  It’s simply that people are hurting.  It is reactionary to the results of the awful policies of the GOP and DNC and their very real, negative impacts on people’s lives.  Inflation, affordability, and obvious enrichment of oligarchs and elites from crony capitalism have completely undermined faith and trust in the status quo politics and ‘free market’ capitalism. The powerless feeling that most in the electorate have as a result of the massive amounts of money in politics has empowered reactionary elements.  

The DSA are the ONLY ones addressing these concerns from within the major parties and doing so from a position of EMPATHY. 

The problem is that the DSA is NOT the right answer.  Their solutions will actually lead to the problems of affordability, inflation, and scarcity getting worse in the long-run and much worse unmentioned and unanticipated (by the voters) consequences -- increased authoritarianism, inefficiency, and tyranny. 

Democratic Socialism is a well-intentioned wolf in sheep’s clothing.  The only way to right the ship, though it will be painful in the short-term (the opposite of DSA which is easy now and causes greater pains in the future), are libertarian solutions.  Libertarians must be talking about these issues hurting so many of our neighbors today.  We must do so with empathy and clarity.  We, as Libertarians, must be honest about its impacts of our policies, as much as we are the long-term outcomes of them.  Libertarians MUST embrace incrementalism to understand and account for the need to avoid fear and shock to existing systems and programs.  We also need to highlight that within the platform there exist immediate, simple steps that can be done to provide fast relief -- especially licensing, regulations, and codes that act as barriers to entrepreneurship, especially homebased businesses (haircare and childcare especially).

There are hard truths in Libertarian solutions, that must be delivered with kindness and understanding, but Libertarian solutions are the best hope for peace, prosperity, and freedom in the long term.