Salley: A DSA sweep could signal a long slide into socialism

By Mark W. Salley | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Imagine the election over. It’s Nov. 4. The impossible has happened!!

Regardless of your political affiliation…today half the nation is in shock. Half the nation is in mourning; the other half joyful.

Count me among those in America who were raised to know — and still to think — America is the greatest nation in the universe. Of course, it’s not easy being the world’s policeman. Responsibility is hard. Sometimes mistakes are made. Decisions have consequences. What is important is being faithful to the ideals on which America was founded.

One of those ideals is set down in the Declaration of Independence, that people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Election results are certain to wreak havoc with the happiness of many. Your happiness may depend on whether or not you’re a Talarico/El-Sayed/Democratic-Socialist voter or a Paxton/Rogers/Capitalist voter.

If you imagine your side lost…it’s a crushing blow.

I’m on the side of the capitalists, the conservatives. According to Ballotpedia there are more than 130 candidates endorsed by DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) running for office this year. Ten candidates are running for the U.S. House of Representatives, 52 are running for state legislatures and 69 are running for local offices.

If DSA candidates are swept into offices nationwide it could signal a long slide into ruinous socialism. Some of these candidates, like Melat Kiros in Colorado (U.S. House District 1), seek to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Others, including state Rep. Chris Rabb (PA-200), favor publicly subsidized grocery stores, as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani does.

Ballotpedia says DSA’s platform, as of September 2026, calls for guaranteed universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, housing for all through new publicly owned social housing and universal rent control, honoring all treaties and tribal sovereignty, enacting reparations, fully abolishing the police and prison system, feminism for all and phasing out fossil fuels.

It is the same program DSA teaches its college recruits.

Regardless of the election results, I will trust the current president and his administration to continue — as they have the past two years — to do all they can to make (and keep) America great!

An unlikely midterm conservative landslide would allow the administration to continue the progress of securing national borders, reducing the number of federal government employees, restoring American manufacturing and exposing criminal fraud.

If, on the other hand, socialists in the Democrat Party are swept in, I trust their efforts to initiate “Woke 2” will be stymied by veto…veto…veto. And I trust the president will use legally binding, NON-auto-pen pardons to protect members of this administration from those who would plot evil against them for their service to America!

Mark W. Salley is a former communications and media specialist for Xcel Energy; the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; and former deputy press secretary for Gov. Bill Owens.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.