LIZ PEEK: A brave Democrat leaves his party as radical socialists take over

"This is a party that is jumping off a cliff, and I dont intend to jump with them."

That was Julian Epstein, long-time Democrat apparatchik, talking recently about his party. He said in a post on X, "I think the Democrats have gone off the deep end… the lunatics are in charge of the asylum."

Epstein, who served as chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and worked to elect Hillary Clinton, is disgusted with his party for having "gone too far left" and having "lost its moral center". He announced in an op-ed in the New York Post that he is supporting Mike Rogers, the Republican running for the senate in Michigan against progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed, because Rogers is a "very practical middle-of-the-road normie guy who wouldve been very consistent with where the Democrats were during the Clinton administration."

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Good for Epstein. He says in his broadside that his announcement isnt about him, but rather an indication of where a lot of Democrats may end up. He declared, "Theres no room in the [Democrat] tent for people who want to destroy our constitution, theres no room in the tent for people who want to align themselves with radical Islam, theres no room in the tent for people who align themselves with antisemitism…"

Good for Epstein. My only question is what took him so long? And… where are his Democrat colleagues?

The answer to the first question is simple. The Socialist surge, and more specifically the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America, is fairly recent. Yes, the progressive "Squad" has been a noisy far-left cohort in Congress for several years, and heaven knows Bernie Sanders, the self-described Democratic Socialist, has been spouting the exact same "tax the rich" dogma for decades.

But Democrats growing engagement with the progressive Left gained warp speed with the campaign of Zohran Mamdani, who was elected mayor of New York City last year. Since then, membership in the DSA has exploded, attracting the highly educated but profoundly ignorant young (mostly white) liberals who know nothing about the sorry history of Socialism and dont understand how well off they are.

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Yes, its hard to buy a house, and rent is expensive, but so are incomes for those who want to work, and there are millions of job openings. The standard of living in the U.S., where nearly everyone has a cell phone and routinely lines up for $6 lattes, is among the highest of any place on earth. Thats not conjecture; its a fact. Americans median income is $72.07 per day, 32% above the median Brits $54.55, 70% above Japans $42.10, and five times Chinas $13.36, according to the World Bank.

The answer to the second question — where are other Democrats? — is also simple. The Socialist "movement" has promoted a slew of kooky candidates, some of whom have successfully challenged long-time incumbents, like Adriano Espaillat,