How To Be An Anti-Socialist

If moderate Democrats want to distance themselves from the party's socialist surge, a good place to start is by protecting independent contractors.

On Tuesday, in a primary-election test of traditional Democratic Party beliefs versus the ideas of Democratic Socialists, voters in New York made clear that they want to push the party harder toward Marxism.

As PBS reported:

Even as the election results were still coming in across all kinds of media channels, it became all too clear what messaging we’re going to hear heading into this fall’s general election.

On CNN, speaking from the political left, former Obama administration official Van Jones said: “The roof is collapsing on the Democratic party establishment.” Here’s that full clip:

And from the Republican side of the political aisle, here is just part of what U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on C-SPAN. His framing was that “the Democrat Party, the Socialists, the Marxists have nominated some of the most radical candidates to ever run for office”:

State-level missives also started blasting out, including this one in my home state of New Jersey:

It’s beyond evident that moderate Democrats who believe in capitalism and entrepreneurship are going to have to work hard this autumn and long afterward to distinguish themselves from the Democratic Party’s Marxist faction amid this insurgency.

There’s a clear-cut way for moderate Democrats to do that, and to create real distance from the Democratic Socialists of America.

Defend everyone’s freedom to be self-employed as independent contractors.

Freelance Busting is a Socialist Priority

The Democratic Socialists of America have long been a driving force behind freelance busting. The socialists have said point-blank that their “highest national priority” is to pass the PRO Act, a bill that would inject freelance-busting regulatory language into federal law. As they have explained their plan to me, forcing everyone to be employees in unions would allow them to create a general strike and shut down business nationwide until they get their laundry list of political demands.

Union organizers whose ranks are at all-time historical lows envision lots more dues-payers and power for themselves in this plan. But shoving entrepreneurial people into the status of unionizable employees is deeply at odds with what the vast majority of independent contractors want. It cuts hard against what the vast majority of Americans—including most Democrats—say they believe.

The PRO Act is based on the same kind of regulatory language that a majority of Californians voted to protect certain independent contractors from with a ballot proposition. It’s based on the same kind of regulatory language that more recently drew an undeniable 99% opposition in New Jersey’s public-comment process.

Voters in the bluest of blue states could not be clearer about opposing this socialist-based policymaking. The more that voters have had opportunities to express themselves on this issue, the bigger the opposition to freelance busting has grown.

Photo by Nadine E on Unsplash

But socialists exerting increasing levels of influence over the Democratic Party love freelance busting. It attacks entrepreneurs and, by association, the very foundation of capitalism itself.

That’s not hyperbole. Independent contractors—what the government often calls nonemployer firms—are the majority of business owners in this country, as shown in this U.S. Census bureau chart:

Wipe out the businesses that are represented on that chart in orange—many of which help to support the businesses represented in blue—and you cripple American capitalism.

This kind of extreme socialist thinking is so key to freelance busting that a few years ago, the head of the AFL-CIO created a virtual town hall that prominently featured a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Together, they tried to push the idea of the PRO Act in ways that would counter the public opposition coming from American entrepreneurs from coast to coast.

Here is Richard Trumka, then the head of the AFL-CIO, introducing Democratic Socialist Megan Romer to talk about work the socialists were doing to make this kind of freelance busting the law of the land:

This extreme unionist-socialist faction is promoting a policy stance that is the opposite of what most Americans want. The majority of Americans tell Gallup that we treasure the freedom to be our own bosses. That’s the very freedom that freelance busting seeks to extinguish.

Moderate Democrats need to understand that their own supporters already recognize this disconnect. Democratic Party voters have been saying for a while now that the party is failing to support this widely shared understanding of the American Dream. This is what the Democrat-leaning think tank Searchlight Institute found when it polled on this issue last year:

If ever there were an issue that is ripe for moderate Democrats to differentiate themselves against the socialists—and to support what most Americans actually want—protecting our freedom to be our own bosses is that issue.

What moderate Democrats need to do as a start is abundantly clear:

• Withdraw support for the federal PRO Act

• Block New Jersey’s independent-contractor rule before it takes effect October 1

• Repeal California’s Assembly Bill 5

Come out and say that you are squarely on the side of America’s tens of millions of independent contractors in our battle against this extremism. Stand with the majority of Americans who believe the nation’s entrepreneurial spirit is something to be celebrated and supported, not regulated out of existence.

Quite frankly, the way things are going right now for moderate Democrats, saving our careers might be the best way to save your own.