Speaking during an interview appearance after her stunning Democratic primary campaign victory in New York City, United States House of Representatives candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, an absolutely far-left candidate who has been associated with the “democratic socialism” movement, revealed that she will not reject the “communist” label thrown at her by enemies.
Such came when she spoke during an appearance on MS NOW’s “The 11th Hour” on Wednesday, June 24. She claimed during the interview that her ties to socialism and the socialist movement do not mean that she is at all detached from the Democratic Party’s base or the views of that base.
Chevalier’s comments were provoked by her being asked about Republican ads framing her as a communist, and what she thinks of it. “That framing is one that I’ve been very proud to be able to say I don’t respond to, one in which I have been very intentional to say I won’t be reactive,” the far-left, Zohran Mamdani-backed candidate revealed.
Adding fuel to the fire of those accusations of communism is that Zohran Mamdani, who backed Chevalier and two other candidates who won their primary elections on far-left platforms, has pushed for such radical policies as city-run grocery stores, free healthcare, free transportation, and significantly higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers.
In any case, Chevalier continued by noting that she and the others like her cannot be reactive to what Republicans argue about them, but should instead stick to their positions, saying, “We are presenting a vision of what we’re fighting for. And I think for far too long, we have had politics that is reactive to what Republicans are doing.”
Further, she argued that Democrats generally need to present a positive vision rather than just being reactive, saying, “What we need is Democrats who are actually going to present a positive vision, one that sets the tone for what we should be talking about, which is the issue of affordability, which is the issue of how our budgets are moral documents.”
Still not done, the radically far-left candidate defended higher taxes in a more oblique and obfuscatory way, saying, “If we say that we want to invest in working people in this country, then we need to do that, and our budgets need to reflect that.”
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Such is a point that Mamdani argued as well on the same day, saying, during an appearance on MS NOW’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” that Democratic voters are supporting far-left politics now. “I think, what is the Democratic Party if not its voters? And what we saw yesterday evening were Democrats across the city turning out and voting for a new kind of politics,” he said.
“And I’ve been clear time and time again that I believe the only majority in our country is that of the working class,” he then added, pushing the radically far-left policies of the sort he is known for by claiming that he is simply supporting the “working class”.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video