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Mamdani’s campaign featured headliners like AOC and Sanders, drawing thousands of young progressives chanting “Tax the rich!” as though at a political revival. The DSA’s New York City chapter went all-in, mobilizing volunteers and securing early endorsements to push his candidacy over the finish line.
They are already using Mamdani’s success to recruit new members, claiming that “Democratic Socialism has soared in popularity” nationwide. Gallup polling backs this up, showing 66% of Democrats now view socialism positively, compared to just 42% for capitalism—a dramatic shift from 2010, when only 50% of Democrats felt the same.
Sanders and AOC are positioning themselves as the architects of the party’s future, with Mamdani serving as a showcase mayor. Currently, over 250 DSA members hold elected office across 40 states, with 90% gaining office since 2019.
But Maher wasn’t about to let the socialist celebration go unchallenged. On HBO’s Real Time, he took aim at the movement’s ambitious promises. “Democratic socialism is like a dating profile,” Maher explained. “Things look great, until you meet up in the real world.”
He cited Bernie Sanders’ signature policy as an example. “For example, Bernie Sanders, his big thing was always bringing single-payer health care to our country of 340 million,” Maher said. “But when liberal, tie-dyed Vermont tried to do it for a population of 626,000, it collapsed like that poor f*** in the Oval Office last week.”
Vermont had attempted single-payer healthcare under Governor Peter Shumlin in 2011 with Green Mountain Care. Shumlin’s plan was ambitious enough to secure his reelection in 2014, but reality hit hard when financial projections emerged: an 11.5% payroll tax on businesses and premiums of up to 9.5% for individuals. The total cost would have reached $4.3 billion in the first year, rising to $5 billion by 2020.
“These are simply not tax rates that I can responsibly support or urge the Legislature to pass,” Shumlin admitted in December 2014, ultimately killing the plan before implementation. Lawmakers didn’t even debate the financing plan—it was clearly unworkable.
Maher didn’t stop there. “Bernie, AOC, Mamdani are not Democrats,” he said. “They’ll be the first to tell you that. They’re Democratic socialists, and that’s a very different thing. And I don’t think people know that yet.”
He noted Americans already enjoy socialism in moderation—Social Security, Medicare, public schools, police, and fire departments—but the DSA is pushing for something far more radical: “social ownership of production,” essentially government control of the economy. Maher reminded viewers that this model has failed miserably in Venezuela, Cuba, and East Germany.
Even in liberal Vermont, Sanders’ signature policy collapsed. If it couldn’t survive in a state with 626,000 residents, how could it work for 340 million Americans?
Mamdani is already facing roadblocks in New York. Any massive tax hikes require approval from Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature, and wealthy residents are already fleeing the state’s crushing tax burden.
AOC and Sanders argue that their brand of socialism—“democratic socialism”—will succeed where past efforts failed. But Maher’s reality check is clear: Americans already saw this experiment fail in Sanders’ own state less than a decade ago. Socialism’s promises are alluring, but when it meets economic reality, the results are far less appealing.
