The Democratic Socialists of America didn't infiltrate the Democratic Party — they took it over from the inside, and a former DSA leader is confirming what the establishment press won't: the same Leninist capture that consumed the DSA is now being replicated across the Democratic infrastructure, with 120,000 members and a growing consultant class pushing open communists into power while party bosses look the other way.

Why it matters: The DSA already proved this playbook works. First accommodation, then capture, then surrender. The Democratic Party is now at the accommodation stage, and if recent primary wins are any indication, capture isn't far behind. Ordinary Americans who vote Democrat thinking they're getting mainstream liberalism are getting something very different.

A former DSA member who served in local leadership laid out the blueprint in the New York Post. The old DSA, founded in 1982, was a reformist project that prioritized open debate and explicitly barred Leninists from membership. Then in the mid-2010s, the organization pursued a deliberate "big tent" strategy — advanced by the DSA's Jacobin left — to bring in radicals of every stripe. By August 2025, delegates voted to remove the constitutional provision barring Leninists entirely. The old guard assumed the newcomers wanted debate. They wanted power.

DSA insider David Duhalde, who advocated for the "big tent" strategy, doesn't deny the radicalization happened — he just calls it an "unplanned left-wing refoundation." That's a euphemism for a hostile takeover. Purity tests around Black Lives Matter and the anti-Israel BDS movement came first. Then came apologia for Putin's invasion of Ukraine and support for Hamas. The former member's final attempt to push back — proposing the DSA demand Hamas release all hostages and surrender unconditionally — collapsed in April 2025 when old-guard allies refused to support it.

Meanwhile, the DSA's electoral machine keeps winning. Consultant Morris Katz, a Tribeca-raised operative whose godfather was the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, shot to prominence after elevating unknown Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani to the New York City mayor's office. Katz's Fight Agency then placed its thumb on the scale for DSA-aligned congressional candidates Claire Valdez, former City Comptroller Brad Lander, and state assemblyman Micah Lander in their successful June primaries. The DSA's consultant class isn't just winning races — they're building a farm system.

But the Katz saga also shows the movement eating its own when the radical chic goes sideways. Katz signed on to the Maine Senate campaign of Graham Platner — a Marine veteran who turned out to have a Nazi-linked tattoo, a trail of disturbing Reddit posts, and rape accusations that sank his bid. The DSA is now circulating a letter with over 500 signatures demanding members "no longer contract or work with" Katz, citing his refusal to dump Platner before the primary. Katz allegedly threatened a whistleblowing ex-staffer to keep the scandal under wraps. The letter is being pushed in both the New York City and national DSA chapters.

The Democratic establishment tolerates all of this because open Marxists are easier to work with than populists who might actually challenge institutional power. The DSA's 120,000 members deliver ground troops and primary votes. The consultant class delivers wins. The cost — candidates who apologize for Hamas, defend Putin, and purge anyone who dissents — is one party bosses have apparently decided they're willing to pay.

The question isn't whether the DSA can take over the Democratic Party. The question is whether there's anything left of the Democratic Party worth taking over — or if the accommodation phase already ended when nobody was watching.