DSA’s stunning hypocrisy exposed in making pick for California governor
California DSA swallows its principles and endorses billionaire Tom Steyer for governor, admitting his fortune came from exploiting workers and investing in private prisons and coal.
California’s Democratic Socialists of America just proved that ideology bends when power is on the ballot. The group with 100,000 members nationwide has endorsed Tom Steyer for governor despite admitting his billions came from private equity and investments in the very industries he now attacks.
In its voter guide the DSA called Steyer’s wealth “earned through the exploitation of the working class.” It noted that “much of his wealth was also invested in private prisons and coal mining, accumulated by the same things he now decries.” Yet the socialists still declared him “the most progressive of the current viable candidates for governor.”
Steyer, who ran Farallon Capital and is worth over $2 billion, has already poured well over $100 million into this race and his earlier failed presidential bid. Recent polls show him trailing front-runner Xavier Becerra even as he floods the airwaves with ads promising higher taxes on corporations and billionaires. The DSA’s reluctant blessing comes with a hedge: “Time will tell whether he’s truly a class traitor.”
Steyer has leaned into the label, wearing hats and T-shirts that proclaim “class traitor.” The socialists also praised his support for trans women competing in sports and his rejection of AIPAC. Those policy points apparently outweighed the uncomfortable facts about how he built his fortune.
This is not principle; it is a transaction. The largest socialist organization in the country has traded its critique of private equity and fossil fuels for the best-funded progressive in the race. The contradiction sits in plain sight in their own voter guide.
The real test will be whether California voters notice that the socialists’ “class traitor” is still a billionaire who made his money exactly the way they claim to despise.
Original reporting: New York Post.
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