Last year I canvassed for Katie Wilson for the mayor of Seattle - mostly because I heard that the Seattle YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) group endorsed her - YIMBY was the political organization I was very involved with when I was living in California and these are folks that are very serious about addressing the affordability crisis cities across the US are facing right now. The solution to America's housing woes are as follows: upzoning, especially in areas of transit; "missing middle" housing production, and fighting NIMBYism (and its regressive policies around it) at every angle. People will say all kinds of things but these are the 3 solutions that will actually work, and make a difference to real affordability.
Easier said than done of course (most of my political activities have been losses due to very aggressive pushback from both parties), but Katie promised that she would fight for these causes if elected, so I figure...well, we got nothing to lose at this point - why not? I had my doubts about her chances given that she was running under a "socialist" label - something that would immediately disqualify your chances in most races had this been a "normal" election cycle. But lo and behold - in a nail-biting race where she was initially way behind the incumbent - she actually won by the slimmest of margins. Given how unpopular these policies used to be even just a few years ago, it was a surprise to everyone (even myself) that she was able to pull it off.
6 months in - it's still early to tell whether or not her candidacy would be an improvement to the situation or more of the same. But it's pretty clear that something has changed - given that an openly socialist mayor (with actual allies on the council level that gives her real leverage) was able to actually take it all the way.
Recent Trends of American Socialism
People like Katie Wilson, Zohran Mamdani, and Michelle Wu represent what people are calling the "New Socialists" or "New Progressives" that have emerged in the last few years - notable because they are winning actual races right now (and are actually popular among voters), instead of being there to simply raise talking points. The picture is more complex than what is typically talked about in the media, however - during the campaign, I found out that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) did not endorse her during her mayoral run - citing policy differences and "lack of membership" with the DSA itself. That implies that Wilson was never part of that group to begin with. Mamdani was politically savvy enough to bring those groups under his wing - but folks like Wilson an Wu tend to keep those groups at arm's length, for the most part.
My hunch is that her involvement with the Transit Rider's Union (which Wilson is the founder of) probably clashed with the "left-NIMBYism" faction of the progressive left, which they were known for opposing new housing construction on the grounds that it was a "capitalist enterprise". In other countries, apartments and condos are often the symbol of the working-class since it houses more people per land - but in the US, that the idea of "luxury condos" were largely used to deflect attention away from the single-family homes that were the real problem at its source. Some years ago a viral meme called "Fully Automated Luxury Communism" went into vogue, where a lot of the progressives used as sort of an expression of their true intent - that they were rich, but was also into socialism/communism - well, because they "cared", right?
Post 2016 (after Trump got elected the first time), "socialist" meetups typically compromised of these types of people: idealistic college students and recent graduates, public sector employees and businesses that relied on government procurement contracts (they knew where their butter was coming from $$$), trust fund kids and other wealthy people looking to alleviate their boredom, and occasionally - someone who look like they just came off the streets, who looked like they could really use the policies that they were talking about. It was a sort of a lively and chaotic hodgepodge of people and special interests that coalesced, but what was missing was the actual working classes...mainly that of actual blue-collar workers.
What happened was basically after Trump was elected in 2016, it triggered a visceral reaction among the elites on the left - and groups like the DSA and other left-leaning groups saw a huge influx of new members coming in - eventually pushing out the old union workers and members out, which changed the culture of these communities forever. (I had a few conversations with these disgruntled old members frustrated that their organizations were "taken over" - but that's the kind of stories you'll never hear in public.) These were groups that were pushing for policies that benefitted the wealthy - just in the public sector as opposed to private - and would frequently try to confuse or cloud the issues that would actually lead to real solutions and improvements. (e.g. PHIMBY - yes we support housing, but only Publicly Housing. Where is the funding for that going to come from? Oops, they never bothered following up on that.)
Though well-intentioned, groups like the DSA has been on the wrong side of the history many times in the past and we found them on the opposing side of policy propositions many times - even for ones that were based on pragmatism and bi-partisan consensus. But in the last few years - and this is a very recent development by the way - there's been a rapid shift in messaging and tone in the way progressives present themselves...and they're now actually winning real seats as a result. (Prior to this, you could safely ignore what they were doing and it would have no outcome on election results.) And most of that has to do with one thing: downward mobility of the former-bourgeoisie.
Somewhat ironically, blue-collar work in the US right now pays fairly well due to its labor shortages (white collar work has slightly higher top pay, but the average pay is about the same between the two now) - if you can make it through certification and training, these jobs often pay better and have better economic prospects than white collar ones: steady work, good benefits, and enough to support a family and mortgage if necessary. This is especially true during times like now where big layoffs in big companies are happening left and right - and especially true during a time where technologies like crypto and AI threaten to eliminate "desk jobs" as a whole - while things like plumbing and electrical work will always be there, no matter what.
So what a lot of people have been doing recently are opting out of the whole white-collar treadmill entirely, sometimes skipping out on college altogether. This is much easier decision for younger generations to make, since they're able to see the reality of things looking outside-in and don't have the same baggage and hang-ups that their elders do. Even if they go to college, many graduates are looking at the layoffs in white-collar work and are opting to go different routes just because the money is there. And that is slowly bringing back real working-class and union members back into the progressive wings as well - and with that, a more grounded, pragmatic approach to politics that finally resonates with voters and are capable of winning real seats in real races. It took 10 years for things to cycle back around, but the pendulum seems to be shifting again, for better or worse.
For blue-collar workers who have been doing that type of work throughout all these cycles - all of this is probably going to seem alien and abstract, because socialism in the US had taken a huge detour into a direction that didn't have much to do with anything - which is why they lost every race and was largely ignored by both parties since they weren't able to convince enough voters to care. But today, the landscape is very different - it's not the case that people "finally saw the light" and are switching over, but that the messaging of the movement itself has changed, and it's finally "working". It's sort of a "rich kid finally forced to do 'real' work" type of trope but on average, the salary differences aren't actually that much - just a different type of work with different kind of skill. The gap between white and blue has less to do with money but a cultural gap from the simple fact that people are doing different kinds of things in their day to day lives.
The big challenge for America now is if we can close these gaps and learn to respect each other's work - whether its a desk job taking calls, or someone plumbing the poop out of your toilet - in most cases you're getting paid about the same, so nobody really should be the wiser, here. Old habits die hard, but I do see at least some effort put in by the "New Socialists" that have been emerging lately - and I decided to take a chance. What is there to lose, really? Unless you actually think the incumbents and status quo is doing so well right now.
(I was going to go into another section of how this stuff will affect governance and DAO models in blockchain/crypto projects but that'll be for another issue. Stay tuned.)