Do PA Democrats Want a Revolution?

Last week, following the primary, Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner called on the city’s Democratic party chair, Bob Brady, to resign. “The Democratic Party in Philadelphia for far too long has spent more time fighting against progressives, fighting against its future, than they have spent fighting against Republicans, fighting against fascists, fighting against Donald Trump,” said Krasner.

This followed the victory speech delivered by state Rep. Chris Rabb, who prevailed in the city’s 3rd congressional district Democratic primary. “I have been critiqued along this campaign for being too radical, being too bold. They ain’t seen nothing yet,” said Rabb, who prevailed over state Sen. Sharif Street and pediatric surgeon Ala Stanford. Both were favored by establishment Democrats in the city and beyond.

The de facto congressman-elect in America’s most Democratic district proudly accepted the endorsement of the socialist Working Families Party. Rabb publicly campaigned not only with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but also with Hassan Piker, the avowed socialist cult figure, whose views and rhetoric have regularly ventured into extremism and anti-Semitism.

Rabb will join a Pennsylvania Democratic congressional delegation that includes Pittsburgh’s Summer Lee. Think of Lee as a combination of Ilhan Omar, minus the charm, and AOC, minus the gravitas. Lee was among the first openly labeled Democratic Socialists to be elected to Pennsylvania’s state House in 2018.

Back then, I was serving as CEO of the Chester County Chamber. In our board’s post-election review, I reported that three new legislators, including Lee, had been elected to the state House. These legislators had embraced the endorsement of the Pennsylvania Democratic Socialist Party (DSA). Many board members dismissed the outcome as no big deal, viewing these victors as not really socialist. After all, President Obama had repeatedly denied that he was a socialist, at times angrily, and viewed the accusation as a Republican smear tactic.

By 2020, Pennsylvania had its first Democratic Socialist state senator, Nikil Saval of Philadelphia.

It’s not just Democratic Socialism, whatever that soft sell claims to mean. It’s that so many elected Democrats either call themselves socialists, or attack capitalism, while defending socialism. The loudest and most recent example is the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. Nationally, he joins the squad and their ideological North Star, Bernie Sanders.

The socialist movement has taken root in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and beyond. Two members of Philadelphia City Council are Working Families Party members, not Democrats. Add in Krasner, the spokesman of the progressive movement. In Pittsburgh, Lee is joined by her fellow 2018 state representative, Sara Innamorato, now Allegheny County Executive.

These elected officials, at the local, state, and congressional levels, are part of the push to cleanse their party, not only to stop the Sharif Streets. They also want to cast away the Bob Bradys of the political world.

Their top mission: to rid the Democratic Party and the U.S. Senate of John Fetterman, the “not good enough,” 100% Planned Parenthood and AFL-CIO rated, pro-marijuana and LGBTQ advocate, who has a 93% voting record in support of Democratic positions.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party – its roots in our purple state coming from the docks, coal mines, and steel mills, union and VFW halls, and Catholic schools, with its liberal wings connected to Jewish, women’s, and civil rights movements – has effectively been taken over by an alliance of suburban progressives, upper-middle-class guilt-ridden environmental extremists, and socialists. It’s a cult apathetic toward blue-collar discontent, one that opposes American military action that isn’t sanctioned by other nations. It’s still consumed with racial and identity concerns, supports taxpayer-funded abortion on demand up through birth, and believes in multiple genders. It advocates for banning fossil fuels, romanticizes socialism, opposes school choice for poor families, and defends men in women’s sports, in addition to tolerating anti-Semitism.

This isn’t our parents’ Democratic Party.

This new generation of elected officials, especially in the suburbs, touts activism and causes rather than resumes and records. No incumbent is off limits. Delaware County’s now predominantly progressive Democratic Party just kicked out the longest serving state House member, Greg Vitali. He’s unabashedly pro-choice and was among the first to win a suburban seat with the most outspoken, tree-hugging record in Harrisburg, decades before anyone ever uttered climate crisis.

The national Trump/GOP primary fights have largely skipped Pennsylvania. Our story is that the old-school, blue-collar Democratic Party is being taken over by people who talk about fighting “fascism” and who claim they can’t be too radical or too bold.

They’re leading a revolution, aimed at the GOP, with traditional Democrats standing in their way. Are voters really looking for a leftwing revolution?