This is written with respect to old-line Democrats, especially Christian Democrats, who still believe in faith, family, honest work, local community, and the Constitution.
Many Americans are deeply attached to their party label because of family history, community identity, and lifelong habit. This is called, “Legacy Voting.”
But there comes a time when loyalty to country has to matter more than loyalty to party.
That thought hit me hard on Saturday as we celebrated the Fourth of July on the 250th Anniversary of American Independence. I was sitting on a pontoon in the middle of Lake Murray with my family, watching the magnificent fireworks and listening to the stirring music on FM 93.1. But what should have been nothing but joy, felt a little bittersweet. In that beautiful moment of American celebration, I could not help remembering the speech of Democratic Socialist NYC Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, the day before. He had delivered rhetoric widely described as sharply left-wing and deeply hostile to the traditional American understanding of ordered liberty. In fact, it was downright Marxist.
That is the point. Today’s Democratic Party is no longer simply the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy, or even Clinton. It has become the main political vehicle for self-identified socialists in America. These are not just professors, activists, or fringe protestors. Open democratic socialists are being elected to Congress, state legislatures, mayoral offices, and city councils, almost always through the Democratic Party ballot line or inside the Democratic coalition.
And the slope runs in a clear direction: socialism to Marxism to communism. Socialism grows the power of the state over everyday life. Marxism turns politics into a struggle to tear down the existing order of property, tradition, class, and culture. Communism is where that road ends: totalized state power, crushed opposition, and freedom reduced to whatever the ruling class permits. Not every socialist calls himself a Marxist, and not every Marxist reaches full communism, but history shows the direction of travel.
Here is the simple, contrasting truth: There are no socialists, Marxists, or communists running for office anywhere in the Republican Party. Republicans have many flaws, and conservatives know that well. But the Republican Party still speaks far more clearly for constitutional limits, federalism, private property, religious liberty, and the Founders’ distrust of concentrated power.
This is why traditional Democrats matter so much right now. Many of you are not radicals. Many of you love this country, believe in God, respect the flag, work hard, raise families, and want your children to inherit freedom rather than dependency. Polling shows Americans are exhausted, distrustful, and deeply unhappy with national politics. That means old-time Democrats and Christian Democrats may be among the only people left who can stop your party from sliding further down this dangerous road.
The truth is hard, but it needs to be said plainly: even voting for a Democrat right now at the local or state level strengthens the Democratic Party all the way up the chain. It energizes the brand, helps the machine, builds the bench, and empowers the same national party that is now carrying socialism deeper into American life. If traditional Democrats truly want their party back — the party they remember from Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Clinton — then the only message their party leadership is likely to hear is electoral pain.
That means it may be time, at least for now, to do one of two things: vote Republican or for a third party temporarily, or do not vote at all. Just do not support the Democrat party while they are headed in this dangerous direction. In whatever form it takes, withholding support is the only real way to tell party leaders that the slope toward socialism, Marxism, and eventually communism is unacceptable to you. The only way to restore the Democratic Party of today to something closer to the party many older Democrats once believed in, is to stop rewarding what it is clearly becoming.
This is not written in hatred. It is written in alarm, and in hope. The country still has people of conscience in both parties. But it may be the traditional Democrats — especially Christian Democrats — who are now the swing voters with the power to save the constitutional republic we all want.
Please open your eyes, tell your party the truth, and refuse to help the Democratic Party go any farther down the road it is now on.
