"You wanted to talk about the rise of the DSA,” Ben Dietz asked our guest, Denayja Reese. “I’m interested to hear where that all goes, partially because I think Mamdani is increasingly an interesting contrast to the regimented way in which we’re supposed to think about DSA or socialist parties generally There was an article in the Times this morning about how he leads and how he’s brought humor to City Hall and how everything is kind of funny now."
"That’s a Libra for you,” Denayja, who is a “connector of people and things” and who runs Will Sub For Culture, said. “They’re going to come in with with charm and levity. We love that about them, and I do think that politics needs it…The Democratic Party is offering us nothing — and it’s an exhausting amount of nothing because the ‘We’re going to fight Trump thing!’: that dog is not hunting anymore because it’s all happening around us. With the DSA, people are seeing something they can actually cling to.”
"[The DSA] are saying it’s not about all of these things they’re trying to distract you with, like politics,” Denayja continued. “Governments are supposed to improve your material lives, and improve the material lives of all of us in a broad and structural and systemic way. That’s the core of it, that’s the core of socialism, and that’s the core of the DSA. There’s something to be said for just being around long enough. Growing up in somewhat activist spaces, as a young queer kid, going to protests,you would always see the DSA…If you’re around long enough, eventually you’re going to break through. It’s the timing thing. People are not being offered anything hopeful, anything real, and so much of socialism is real, tangible change.”
“People need something to cling to and a political direction to walk towards,” she said. "The DSA is offering that.”
Denayja continued to explain some of the movement’s weaknesses, in that they’re doing a pretty poor job of bringing in Black voters and candidates, that a whiteness or specific lens will ultimately hinder their own progress, which could change by their investing in Black neighborhoods and spaces to fully understand who they’re connecting with.
She also pointed out something key: identifying local leaders, amplifying and working with them, acknowledging the value and expertise of their non-political experience. “They’re not really existing in arts and creative spaces in the way that they actually really should be,” she said. “I’m no political strategist,” she laughs.
“I do feel like it is trying,” Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick said. "The issue you’re talking about is in the middle, because we can have [diversity] in New York and in LA, but that’s not the whole picture, by no means. It’s funny because they’re trying to solve the problems of the larger Democrat establishment while also repeating some of its biggest issues. It will get there. if anyone will get there, it’s the DSA.”
This then kicked up debating AOC, less about her as a candidate or DSA but how she — via the Woke 1.0 discourse — stepped on a cultural landmine she is typically savvy enough to avoid.
"Thinking about the candidates and the cultural disconnect — because that’s the AOC example is such a great example of that — I don’t think that the people that they’re working with on these campaigns,” Denayja said. “The establishment of ‘You go find the campaign manager that won X race somewhere,’ I think those people who understand how to play the game of politics and winning elections need to be fully hand-in-hand in partnerships with people like us, who understand culture.”
“Absolutely,” Kyle said.
“As marketing is imploding as an industry, I do think we’re going to see a lot more people from our world moving into politics and working on these campaigns,” she said. "Someone should have said Hey! There’s a deeper context to this. and I think we think about things through that lens and, to be fair, [AOC] is not actively running for anything.”
“I don’t know if she’s not running for anything,” Ben said.
"Exactly",” Denayja said, laughing. “There needs to be a real someone in the room to raise a hand and say, This is not going to curl all the way over. and I think that’s also a huge issue with the rise of the DSA as well because Mamdani really did that well. I’ve read every deep dive on his team, and they all understand all of it. Some of them come from politics, many of them just come from the world.”
Certainly an interesting time for politics, as the left and more progressively minded have a huge opportunity to make change via bringing in culture makers to help enact change that can sustain itself. Will that actually happen? Stay tuned. Listen to the whole episode above and on Spotify, where we discuss the new Troye Sivan single, how sports is the new song of the summer, and Gen Z fashion’s hits and misses.
Find more from HIP REPLACEMENT on YouTube, Spotify, and Instagram. Be sure to follow Ben Dietz over on SIC and Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick over on The Trend Report™ too.
