Democrats’ Dilemma: A Philosophical Schizophrenia
By Andrew M. Cuomo
The country is now a year into a Republican-led federal government, elected on sweeping promises of affordability, border control, and conservative social policy. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Republicans capitalized on real public frustration over inflation, high housing costs, and a sense that government was disconnected from the daily struggles of working families. They pledged that unified GOP control would lower prices, restore stability, and “put Americans first.”
But today, those promises remain largely unfulfilled. Despite controlling every lever of federal power, Republicans have not delivered the economic relief they ran on. The MAGA movement, once seen as an unstoppable political force, is fracturing under the weight of its own contradictions, internal chaos, and governing failures. What looked like a resurgence in 2024 is now cratering in real time.
Democrats are poised to be the political beneficiaries of this collapse. But winning because the other side is losing is not a strategy — it is a warning. If Democrats ride a MAGA implosion back into power without a clear identity and without an affirmative governing agenda, we will simply repeat the cycle that has defined American politics for more than a decade: Government fails to deliver, public trust erodes further, and political extremes continue to grow in the vacuum.
Last month’s government shutdown was an obvious failure for Washington. But the Senate Democratic mutiny - and subsequent capitulation - was devastating. It was the latest example of a floundering Democratic Party, exemplifying what I call the “Democrats’ dilemma”: a philosophical schizophrenia.
This past election, moderate Democrats won key races in Virginia and New Jersey, good news heading into the midterms. At the same time, the far left, led by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others, is energizing the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and growing support among young voters and in urban centers. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City symbolizes this growth, and the DSA’s goal coming out of it is clear: take over the democratic party writ large.
This dichotomy leaves us with a fundamental question: Who are we?
This is the crossroads we now face .
Political analysts love to debate “messaging,” as if words alone can solve structural problems. That is our first mistake. The problem is not what Democrats say, it is what we do. The party’s inability to deliver on its own promises has undermined credibility more than any slogan or talking point ever could hope to overcome.
The “new” Democratic buzzword is “affordability.” But affordability has always been central to Democratic politics. Economic insecurity for working and middle-class families animated the labor movement, workplace reforms, and the New Deal. It was FDR declaring that the measure of progress is how we help “those who have too little.” It was Bill Clinton who won the White House with a simple mantra: “It’s the economy, stupid.” As a theme, “affordability” has been a bipartisan issue— even Donald Trump framed his campaign around lowering prices.
The far left believes they need a villain. Today it is “the oligarchs,” a more elegant term for the rich. But this is simply a recycled version of the Occupy Wall Street narrative and the “war on the 1%.” Inequality is not a new theme, it has always been our issue. My father made the same point in his “Tale of Two Cities” speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention.
The problem is not diagnosis; it is delivery. Inequality has widened. Costs have soared. Wages have lagged. The Affordable Care Act aside, Democrats talked for years about economic justice but failed to produce meaningful, sustained improvements, even when we held unified control of the federal government. Voters noticed. And that credibility gap helped fuel both of Donald Trump’s victories.
Democrats must figure out how to deliver results — how to make government actually work for people. We must develop the product, not just the sales pitch.
The “new” democratic socialist movement only deepens the problem, offering aspiration, not realism. They tap into populist anger by offering hyperbolic promises that raise expectations without any plausible path to implementation. Today’s DSA is not the liberal reform wing of the 1960s. It has a codified ideological manifesto and demands strict adherence without compromise.
Their platform rejects private property, calls for a socialist economy, and promises free transportation, free childcare, and free college — funded almost entirely by taxing “the rich.” They demand permanent rent freezes with no mechanism to pay for building maintenance or rising operational costs. It is not idealism; it is fantasy, akin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, a 14-page resolution promising net-zero emissions, a full economic transformation, and millions of new jobs with no feasible timeline, plan, or cost structure. It was aspiration without execution.
Attempts by some DSA leaders to “moderate” their positions are political smokescreens. They are ideologues and have sworn to pursue their agenda.
There is no national constituency for socialism – history shows that it has not succeeded anywhere. Also, no city or state can implement socialism within a capitalist nation; the wealthy will simply leave. That migration is already underway.
Americans don’t want to dismantle our economic system. They want it to be fairer and more functional. They want government to work.
The DSA platform also embraces extreme anti-police and anti-public-safety positions: “defund police budgets to zero," and to “abolish jails” to “end the carceral state.” Americans reject this because safety is the foundation of quality of life.
In New York City, roughly 75% of violent-crime victims are Black and Latino. Working families cannot afford private security; the wealthy can. Presidents Clinton and Biden, and Mayor David Dinkins all understood that effective policing is a core responsibility of government. Slashing police budgets and eliminating enforcement of basic laws will only increase crime, the one predictable outcome of a DSA-run administration.
The socialist left is also polarizing and exclusionary. DSA rhetoric often includes racial resentment and, disturbingly, antisemitism: calls to raise property taxes in “white communities,” depictions of police as instruments of racial control, and the refusal to denounce the chant “globalize the intifada,” widely understood as encouraging violence against Jews.
This is not progressivism. It is fundamentally anti-American.
Democrats have historically led the fight against discrimination. We are the party of E pluribus unum — out of many, one. When John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic president, he did not celebrate a sectarian victory; he affirmed national unity.
The DSA is the extreme left’s answer to the extreme right. Both alienate the majority of Americans. Their electoral successes occur almost exclusively in heavily Democratic urban areas where young, ideological voters dominate primaries. Even there, they remain divisive.
In New York City, where over 70% of those who voted in the last elections were Democrats, Zohran Mamdani won the mayoralty with barely half the vote, while more than 1 million New Yorkers voted against him — a record opposition. He will assume office with more votes cast against him than any mayor in modern city history.
This is not a mandate; it is an urban anomaly. But like the Tea Party, which eventually transformed into MAGA and resulted in the death of the reasonable center, the DSA is explicitly organizing to take over the Democratic Party from within, one primary at a time.
This allows Republicans to paint all Democrats with the same broad, extremist brush, threatening moderates running in swing districts. The DSA is not the future of the Democratic Party; it is an obstacle to its future.
So what is the path forward?
The Democratic Party succeeded historically because it mattered in people’s lives. Politics is not academic. It is practical: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, strong public schools, roads, bridges, jobs, housing: tangible progress.
What have Democrats accomplished recently that a normal person can name? What vision are we offering that will materially improve Americans’ lives? Democrats cannot simply rely on Trump Republicans’ failures.
Democrats must redefine themselves with conviction and action. Americans will not elect a socialist, anti-police, divisive party. It is still the economy, stupid, but how do you improve it – not with rhetoric, but with results?
Start by laying out a concrete agenda:
- Raise the federal minimum wage. It remains $7.25 — unchanged since 2009.
- Expand small-business loans to help new entrepreneurs build wealth.
- Launch a national housing strategy. HUD, created by LBJ in 1965, was designed to lead federal housing policy. Federal retreat has left states with fragmented, inadequate systems.
- “Build, baby, build.” Deliver airports, bridges, tunnels, rail, broadband, and schools at scale. People must see government working.
- Pass meaningful gun reform. The 1994 assault-weapons ban saved lives. Today mass shootings are a national trauma. Pass a new ban and force Republicans to defend inaction.
- Codify Roe v. Wade. Make reproductive freedom a guaranteed national right.
- Stand with Israel. It is the only democracy in the region and America’s strongest ally. Disagreement on tactics is normal; abandonment, and stoking anti-semitism, is abhorrent and irresponsible.
Most importantly, Democrats must rediscover the will to use the power of government effectively. Executives — presidents, governors, mayors — must act as CEOs. Legislators debate; executives deliver.
Major projects bring lawsuits, delays, and political risk. But risk is the job. Leadership requires taking it.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated over $1.2 trillion, yet much remains unspent due to bureaucratic hurdles and delays. Claiming regulations make building impossible is an excuse. The job is to get it done — or change the regulations.
When Democrats cannot deliver, we reinforce the Republican argument that “government is the problem.” We must prove the opposite, as we have before.
As HUD Secretary and as Governor of New York, I learned how hard major projects are, but also that they can be done.
We built the $4 billion Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the largest infrastructure project in the country at the time, after 50 years of inaction. We finished it on time and on budget. Success builds confidence.
We rebuilt LaGuardia Airport and JFK airports, expanded railways and subways, built parks and economic development hubs, and passed progressive achievements: The highest minimum wage, the strongest Minority and Woman owned business empowerment program, paid family leave, marriage equality, universal pre-K, and landmark voting rights reforms.
At some point, it is not about spin. It is about results.
Democrats are on the cusp of a political opening created by Republican failure. But opportunity is not destiny. If we run on an ambitious but realistic vision, competence, moderation, courage, and real results, we can prove to the American people why ours is the party that deserves their confidence and their vote, and lead the country again.
And if we don’t, we won’t deserve to win.
Cuomo was the 56th Governor of the State of New York and was a candidate for Mayor of New York City
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