OPINION:
The California Democratic Socialists of America announced its support for billionaire Tom Steyer in the governor’s race. Umm. Does anybody else see what’s wrong with that picture?
Socialists are such hypocrites.
Even the socialists admit it.
From the World Socialist Web Site, WSWS.Org: “There is no mystery to solve. Steyer is not ‘a class traitor.’ He is a conscious representative of the capitalist class. He does not propose the abolition of capitalism, the expropriation of the billionaires, workers’ control of production or the building of a socialist movement.”
But he does have a whole lotta money.
And socialists like to pretend they’re above such things — that money doesn’t matter so much as equality, or rather, equity; and that money doesn’t matter so much as fair opportunity for all, or rather, government redistribution and control of resources. But in the end, they all want to be part of the 1 percent.
They just want, at the same time, to be seen as po’ regular folk.
On Sen. Bernard Sanders, The Street wrote: “While he rages against billionaires, the outspoken Democratic Socialist and political icon is actually part of ‘the 1 percent’” with a 2025 net worth in the millions.
On Rep. Ilhan Omar, IMDb wrote: “Rep. Ilhan Omar and Husband’s Net Worth Surges 3500 percent in One Year, Could Be As High As $30 Million.” Then again — that could be an accounting error. She may have meant to say $30,000. Regardless, Omar is the same who introduced legislation years ago to implement a 60 percent tax on billionaires to pay for healthcare for others.
“It is shameful that billionaires profit off the suffering of working families,” the Minnesota Democrat said back then, in August of 2020.
By “shameful,” of course, socialists mean, “gimme some.”
“Noam Chomsky, Closet Capitalist,” wrote Hoover Digest in 2006, about the noted far-leftist intellectual who made a living — quite a living, by dollars’ count — condemning the free market.
From the Hoover Institution piece: “One of the most persistent themes in Noam Chomsky’s work has been class warfare. He has frequently lashed out against the ‘massive use of tax havens’ … and criticized the concentration of wealth in ‘trusts’ by the wealthiest 1 percent. … But trusts can’t be all bad. After all, Chomsky, with a net worth north of $2,000,000, decided to create one for himself.”
Now comes Steyer. Now comes hedge fund manager Steyer with his millions upon millions upon millions of dollars; with his estimated $2.4 billion, actually — enough money that he should be despised by socialists.
But socialists just want to win, and they know it takes money to win. They may believe it’s impossible to “earn a billion dollars,” as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, just said. But they also apparently believe it’s quite OK to tap into that billion, when it benefits the socialist cause.
“Steyer is not the only Democrat testing the party’s appetite for a populist from the 1 percent,” The Guardian wrote. “In Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker, a scion of the Pritzker family that founded the Hyatt hotel chain, is running for a third term.”
Then there’s Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy tech businessman funding his own attempt to secure Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s seat; then there’s San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, of Levi Strauss family fortune fame, who was sworn in office in January of 2025.
Geesh, the list of capitalistic-hating multimillionaire politicians is long.
It just goes to show: socialists — which is to say today’s Democrats — are among the most deceptive, hypocritical, opportunistic people on the planet.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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