The Democrats set themselves on fire
You think AOC is a radical whose rise reveals progressive Democrats have views far out of touch with average Americans?
You ain’t seen nothing yet. Get ready for DAC!
Yesterday, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old “democratic socialist” and graduate student, won a Democratic Congressional primary in New York City. Barely 70,000 people voted, but make no mistake, this is a generational and ideological earthquake. Chevalier beat a veteran Congressman, Adriano Espaillat, who was backed by New York’s Democratic establishment, including its governor and attorney general.
But Chevalier had a trump card, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Exactly one year ago today, Mamdani rode a similar coalition of young, angry, overeducated and underemployed Democrats to win New York’s Democratic mayoral primary over Andrew Cuomo. After five months as mayor, Mamdani is riding high. He’s still in the free-money stage of his term, and the Knicks’ NBA championship has the city in a great mood (this is real, Mamdani even ran an ad with him and Chevalier holding basketballs).
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(Knicks in five. Unreported Truths forever!)
Or hit this link for a one-time donation... It’s, umm, a slam dunk!
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So he decided to throw his weight around and see how far left New York voters would go. The answer: pretty far. Chevalier, along with two other progressive-to-socialist Democrats. is now all-but-certain to join the city's Congressional delegation next year.
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call…
But it is hard to overstate how radical Chevalier’s views really are. Even AOC — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for the record — and Bernie Sanders refused to endorse her before the primary.
She comes straight from the 2020 “mostly peaceful protests” wing of the left, with a heavy dose of what one might euphemistically call “anti-Israelism.” That is, she will not say if she Israel has a right to exist. Not coexist with a Palestinian state, exist at all.
See for yourself. Last week, Chevalier sat for an interview with a Substack called The New York Editorial Board where she explained her views in some detail.
The interview is worth reading in full. But if you can’t stomach it, I’ve included the highlights below.
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(His real name’s Robert Zimmerman, but I won’t tell DAC if you don’t.)
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Highlights from Darializa Avila Chevalier’s June 18, 2026 interview with The New York Editorial Board, presented without comment (aside from one short note on the Israel portion).
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ON IMMIGRATION
Q: …What should our federal immigration policy be? And start specifically with deportations. The DSA does not like deportations very much, believes in free flow of people across borders. Is that where you stand? If you are OK with some deportations, under what conditions ought people to be able to be deported?
A: I am not OK with any deportation. I think all deportation is wrong because I think it is an incredibly cruel punishment that is really only relegated to people on the basis of where they were born. And, you know, I think that we just should not have a system that allows deportation to happen at all...
Q: Are there countries historically you can think of that don’t have borders, don’t deport people who aren’t there legally? Like, is there a model for that?
A: Well, first of all, we can think about nation state borders as a larger, longer, more philosophical concept—
Q: I would like your philosophical view. I think that is not a usual view.
A: …you know, when we talk about the border, a lot of people think about it as like a hard line in the sand, but really it is a system. It is like a social system that we’re engaging in, and more and more, it’s a militarized project. It’s one that is deeply dehumanizing to so many people.
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ON ISRAEL
Q: Do you believe Israel should continue to exist as a country?
A: …[P]eople of the region should have a final say on what their government and their country looks like... the only path that will actually allow everyone to live in safety and dignity is one where everyone in the region is equal before the law.
[Note: The journalists talking to Chevalier did not further press her for a “yes” or “ no” answer to the question of whether Israel should “exist as a country.”]
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ON CRIME
Q: [Y]ou’ve been a prison abolitionist, a decarceralist. What should happen to somebody who has killed somebody else?
A: …when I think about this question of harm, I think how do we create a society where people feel so safe that they don’t need to pick up the phone and call the police..
Q: But what do you do to the murderer though?
A: ….I have spoken to clients at public defender’s office where you hear the larger story of what happened, and it was folks who were under so much stress from the conditions that they were facing that they lashed out in a way that was out of character, in ways that they deeply regret…
Q: But, did we answer what happens to the murderer? Do you not incarcerate the murderer?
A: You know, again, I’m talking about this question between the distance between the world we want to see and the world that we’re at…
Q: But can you get a little less abstract?
A: Well, this is what I’m saying is that when that happens, and as someone who has sat in so many courtrooms, to me, all of that is tragic. The fact that the murder happened is tragic. The fact that there was a circumstance in which that could even come to pass is tragic…
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So. Murders “happen” and borders aren’t real, except when it comes to Jews moving to the Middle East.
Left-wing Democrats have learned nothing since 2020.
As you know, I have been frustrated with many of President Trump’s recent decisions, as well as the way he has used his office as a money-making scheme.
But if leftist voters really want the policies Chevalier pushes — and, again, they chose her against a liberal incumbent — the Republican Party is likely to be running the United States for the foreseeable future.
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(Politics, when you need it. The truth, always.)
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(Last year’s piece on Mamdani. Yep, that’s him in the center, wearing the apron. It’s archived and paywalled starting tomorrow, so read it today. Or subscribe!
New York City Democrats may pick a socialist Muslim who has basically never worked as their mayoral candidateAlex Berenson·June 24, 2025
You know things are bad when Andrew Cuomo is the hero.
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