Progressives Normalize Being a Sellout: The Epidemic of DSA-aligned Progressives Capitulating to the Imperialist Zionist State

For decades, working-class people, anti-imperialists, and socialists have been told a comforting lie by the architects of the American electoral machine: that if we just elect "progressives," "democratic socialists," or "fighters for the working class" into the belly of the beast, they will change the system from within. We are told that figures backed by groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) or branded as progressive champions will stand as an unbreakable wall against militarism, corporate greed, and the crimes of the imperialist state.

Today, that illusion has completely shattered. What we are witnessing across the American political landscape is an epidemic of capitulation. An unprecedented wave of transparent betrayals by DSA-aligned progressives and left-leaning Democrats has exposed a grim reality: the progressive wing of the Democratic Party does not threaten the capitalist, imperialist establishment—it serves as its most effective left-cover.

Nowhere is this moral and political bankruptcy more stark than in the systematic betrayal of the Palestinian struggle. Across the board, figures who once rode waves of grassroots energy by gesturing toward Palestinian human rights have systematically turned around, kissed the ring of the Zionist lobby, campaigned alongside architects of endless war, and normalized the role of the political sellout.

The Anatomy of the Progressive Sellout

To understand how figures on the nominal left morph into lapdogs of the imperialist state, one must examine the structural trap of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a graveyard for social movements. It takes the righteous anger of working people—whether over healthcare, housing, or genocide—funnels it into multi-million-dollar ballot campaigns, and systematically neutralizes any genuine threat to American empire.

For years, politicians have cynically utilized the Palestinian struggle as a moral badge of honor to court anti-war and Arab-American voters, only to abandon those principles the moment power and institutional approval beckon. When politicians align themselves with war criminals, endorse bipartisan imperial consensus, and dilute their platforms to appease the military-industrial complex and the Zionist lobby, they are not merely "compromising"—they are committing an active betrayal of the working class.

The pattern is visible across the entire spectrum of prominent progressive and DSA-aligned figures. From Michigan to New York, and all the way to Capitol Hill, the timeline of capitulation is staggering.

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed: From "Next Obama" to Imperial Campaigning

Few trajectories illustrate this descent into establishment compliance better than that of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Once hailed as a visionary progressive champion in Michigan, El-Sayed’s recent political maneuvers have cemented his transition into a standard-issue corporate Democrat.

As detailed in reports by CNN and Middle East Eye, El-Sayed faced intense grassroots backlash after embracing none other than former Vice President Barack Obama for an upcoming campaign rally. To invite Obama—an architect of drone wars, corporate healthcare bailouts, and unconditional military support for the Israeli state—into a progressive campaign space is a direct insult to every anti-war activist.

This alliance was not an isolated incident. As covered by Al Jazeera and AP News, El-Sayed actively campaigned alongside Kamala Harris in a transparent bid to unify the fractured pro-corporate wing of the Democratic Party in a key swing state. By tying his wagon to the central pillars of the Biden-Harris administration—an administration that has funneled billions in bombs and diplomatic cover for the genocide in Gaza—El-Sayed has demonstrated that institutional ambition supersedes any commitment to Palestinian liberation or anti-imperialist solidarity. He has completed his evolution from a grassroots-hopeful physician into a loyal foot soldier for the very empire he once claimed to critique.

Zohran Mamdani: Diluting Solidarity Under Establishment Pressure

In New York City, DSA-backed politician Zohran Mamdani has similarly walked a treacherous path of institutional compromise, culminating in recent actions that have alienated core anti-war and anti-Zionist supporters.

While Mamdani has occasionally faced bipartisan backlash from conservative Democrats for verbal criticisms regarding the devastation in Gaza, his structural concessions to the political establishment tell a more troubling story. As reported by outlets like Politico and The Guardian, Mamdani's rollout of an official policy plan to combat antisemitism in New York City drew sharp rebukes from anti-Zionist Jewish groups and progressive organizers alike. By drafting plans that carefully sidestep or deliberately marginalize the fundamental critique of anti-Zionism—conforming to mainstream political definitions that insulate the Israeli state from legitimate political attack—Mamdani crossed a red line.

When a politician backed by the socialist left begins tailoring their foreign policy and civil rights stances to satisfy the sensibilities of the Zionist lobby and municipal power brokers, solidarity becomes a hollow marketing slogan. The recent backlash from anti-war protesters outside October 7 vigils highlights the growing fury on the ground: working-class activists are realizing that electoral survival within the capitalist state requires sanitizing one's principles until nothing radical is left.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Brunch with the Establishment and Imperial Realignment

On the national stage, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has long served as the poster child for the contradiction of "fighting from within" the Democratic Party. Once associated with democratic socialist politics, Ocasio-Cortez has steadily retreated into the warm embrace of the congressional leadership.

Recent reporting by The Hill and USA Today shed light on a glaring symptom of this ideological drift: Ocasio-Cortez’s tepid and managed responses to high-level establishment maneuvering, such as the quiet convergence of elite interests between establishment figures like Hakeem Jeffries and Trump-aligned operatives like Jared Kushner. Rather than launching a systemic, fire-breathing assault on the bipartisan consensus of war, oligarchy, and real estate corruption, Ocasio-Cortez’s interventions have been reduced to safe, procedural wrist-slaps designed not to rock the boat of House leadership.

On foreign policy, the trajectory has been equally damning. Over successive legislative cycles, AOC and the broader "Squad" have repeatedly voted to fund the Iron Dome, offered procedural cover for military funding bills, and softened their rhetoric on Palestine to align with the Democratic Party's imperial foreign policy. The working-class mandate for international solidarity has been traded away for committee assignments and access to the inner chambers of Washington power.

John Fetterman: From Working-Class Populist to Empire’s Most Vicious Lapdog

Perhaps no political figure in recent memory represents a more grotesque, dizzying betrayal than John Fetterman. Cultivating an aesthetic of blue-collar populism and progressive independence, Fetterman rode a wave of grassroots enthusiasm into the U.S. Senate—only to immediately unmask himself as one of the most vicious, unhinged defenders of the American empire and the Israeli war machine.

As documented by The Guardian and Al Jazeera, Fetterman abandoned even the pretense of progressive values, culminating in jaw-dropping spectacles like making video appearances at Republican midterm conventions and cozying up to right-wing donors. Far from standing with the oppressed, Fetterman transformed into a foaming-at-the-mouth opponent of Palestinian rights, proudly waving Israeli flags, mocking peace activists, and cheering on the extermination of Gaza.

As analytical pieces from independent investigative platforms like Unplug the Empire have noted, Fetterman’s career stands as the ultimate cautionary tale: a clinical demonstration of how easily the electoral apparatus absorbs a supposed outsider and converts them into a barking dog for the ruling class.

Bernie Sanders: The Patriarch of the Sheepdog Mechanism

At the root of this entire epidemic stands Senator Bernie Sanders, the undisputed patriarch of the "progressive" political trap. For decades, Sanders popularized socialist rhetoric while anchoring his entire political strategy to the Democratic Party—the very party responsible for managing American imperialism and crushing working-class movements.

Sanders' role has consistently functioned as a "sheepdog" mechanism: he mobilizes millions of radicalized youth and working-class people with inspiring critiques of billionaire greed, only to herd them back into the voting booths to pull the lever for whichever neoliberal warmonger the Democratic Party establishment crowns.

When it comes to foreign policy, Sanders’ record exposes the fatal flaw of reformist socialism tied to the nation-state. While occasionally offering mild verbal critiques of humanitarian crises, Sanders has repeatedly voted for military budgets, backed foreign interventions, and maintained a cowardly silence on the full scope of U.S. imperial complicity in West Asia. By validating the Democratic Party as a vehicle for social change, Sanders has provided moral cover for a generation of younger politicians—like El-Sayed, Mamdani, and Ocasio-Cortez—to follow his footsteps into total capitulation.

The Weaponization and Sale of the Palestinian Struggle

The most unforgivable crime in this entire dynamic is the cynical, opportunistic exploitation of Palestinian suffering for electoral gain.

During campaign cycles, aspiring progressive politicians readily lean into the grief and anger of Arab-American and anti-war voters. They accept endorsements from Palestinian activists, whisper promises of justice behind closed doors, and use the language of human rights to build their progressive credentials. But the moment the ballots are cast and the office doors close, the calculus changes.

Faced with pressure from the Zionist lobby, corporate media scrutiny, and the institutional gatekeepers of the Democratic Party, these politicians drop Palestine like a hot potato. They sanitize their platforms, vote for military funding, campaign alongside war criminals like Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, and normalize the very atrocities they once pretended to oppose.

This is the ultimate betrayal: turning the blood of an oppressed people into a stepping stone for careerist advancement.

Breaking Free from the Progressive Trap

The epidemic of DSA-aligned and progressive capitulation teaches the working class a vital, uncompromising lesson: liberation cannot be voted into office through a capitalist party.

You cannot reform an imperialist state from within its own legislative chambers. You cannot build a socialist movement by partnering with the architects of war and genocide. Every time progressives ask us to "hold our nose" and vote for the lesser evil, we are merely voting for our own subjugation and financing the slaughter of our siblings abroad.

It is time to abandon the dead-end strategy of electoral reformism. The working class, the anti-imperialists, the anti-Zionists, and the socialists must break completely with both the Democratic and Republican parties. We must stop investing our energy into politicians who normalize being a sellout. Instead, we must build independent, militant, internationalist working-class power—rooted in the streets, the workplaces, and communities—capable of smashing imperialism and capitalism at their roots.