OPINION:
In a season five episode of “The Simpsons,” Homer goes to space as part of a NASA publicity stunt — and predictably creates chaos.
While eating a bag of potato chips, Homer accidentally breaks an ant farm, which causes the little creatures to float around inside the space craft. One ant passes closely in front of a camera lens so that it appears enormous in a video feed back to Earth.
Television anchorman Kent Brockman mistakenly concludes that a species of hostile space ants is mounting an attack and tries to make nice with the invading force by uttering one of his most famous lines: “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”
This is almost exactly the situation facing Democratic leaders in Washington — only their superiors are not fictional cartoon space ants, but very real “democratic socialists” who have seized the means of steering their party.
It is clear that Democrats have no option but to welcome their new overlords. They must act that way because self-described socialist candidates have been winning Democratic primaries, with about three dozen victories across the country at the federal, state and local levels this campaign cycle.
Establishment Democrats greatly fear the voters who fueled these candidacies.
House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York celebrated congressional primary wins by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates last week, including one whose opponent he had endorsed.
“Congratulations to [Melat Kiros] on your hard-fought primary win,” Mr. Jeffries posted on X, addressing the socialist candidate who beat a 15-term Democrat House member in Colorado. “We will take back the majority in November.”
He said these things because he wants to be speaker of the House if Democrats gain control, but he knows that the same leftists who toppled other incumbents would probably not eagerly support him.
Consider the scene at a DSA victory party last week when Mr. Jeffries appeared on the TV screen. When the crowd noticed him, a chant immediately started up: “You’re next!”
Scan the ranks of Democrats with national stature or ambition and you’ll see a lot of them pandering to the socialists because they’re terrified and want to be eaten last.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is Jewish, told Morning Joe on MS NOW that he’s perfectly fine with the socialists, many of whom are virulently antisemitic.
“I want to work with anyone,” he said.
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who is running for the Senate, made clear that the only thing that matters to him is winning elections — even if the candidates are leftist extremists on a variety of issues.
“We’ve gotta have a big tent if we want a majority,” he said on CNN.
And you knew you could count on Kamala Harris to grovel to the socialists. The failed Democratic presidential candidate, who obviously intends to run again, reportedly reached out to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to begin courting his support for the 2028 election.
All of this proves that establishment Democrats feel they need the permission and blessing of these rabid leftists to do anything. But let’s get one thing straight at this point: The ascendant leftists in question don’t support a harmless expansion of government safety nets, nor they do not preach socialism lite, whatever that might be.
These are committed Marxists (just listen to them) and their goal is the complete destruction and rearrangement of our government, economy and way of life.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, who beat an establishment incumbent in New York’s 13th Democratic primary, once urged people, via social media, to “seize the means of production” – a core Marxist tenet. She has frequently posted pro-communist messages and lamented that libraries don’t carry enough works by communist heartthrob Vladimir Lenin.
This is an ideology that responsible for the deaths of 100 million people throughout human history, and it has failed in all its iterations to deliver what its proponents promise.
On “The Simpsons,” anchorman Brockman was wrong about the invasion of the space ants — but in real life, national Democrats are correct to recognize their own new overlords.
They are Marxists, intent on seizing power and then lots of other things, and they have Democrats frightened out of their wits.
So, when you see Dems trembling before the communists, like Mr. Jeffries is doing right now, they just might be channeling their own inner Kent Brockman, who tries to bargain with the ants he thought were conquerors.
“I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves,” Mr. Brockman says.
It’s not clear that the communists will have sugar caves, but they’ve got something in mind for the Democrats, that’s for sure. And just imagine what they have planned for the rest of us.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and founder of Line Drive Public Affairs. He served as a senior advisor on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign.
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