Democratic socialists still wearing COVID masks

Opinion>Opinions - Robby's Radar The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Democratic socialists still wearing COVID masks Comments: by Robby Soave, opinion contributor - 07/14/26 12:42 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Robby Soave, opinion contributor - 07/14/26 12:42 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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A photo from a meeting of the Democratic Socialists of America in Denver, Colo., went viral on X because in the photo, the majority of the gathered lefty radicals are wearing COVID masks.

Indeed, the mask wearers clearly outnumber the non-mask wearers. When was this photo taken, you might ask? 2020? 2021, maybe? Nope. It was taken this month, in July of 2026. The photo is of the Denver chapter celebrating democratic socialist Melat Kiros winning her primary against an incumbent Democrat.

Commentators on social media brutally mocked the poor sap who posted the photo, and he took it down, but the internet is forever, as they say.

Now, to be clear, this is not a one-off. Democratic socialists are huge outliers in terms of how much they love their COVID masks. In fact, at the DSA’s 2025 convention, the wearing of masks was all but mandatory, with attendees strongly encouraged to masks except at meal time, to maintain six feet of social distancing from speakers who were not wearing masks and — get this — attendees were required to get COVID shots and a booster shot in the last 12 months.

What year is it? Because in 2026, I thought everybody knew that the vaccine does not stop the transmission of COVID.

Anyway, these people are still aggressively masking. And as far as they’re concerned, that’s fine by me — it’s everybody’s choice on how to behave. If they all want to wear clown noses or capes or scuba gear, that’s fine by me too, though I reserve the right to make fun of them.

The issue is that I know what would happen if they ever took power — they would try to mandate this insanity. Even in 2026!

That’s because so-called democratic socialism is actually an extreme and authoritarian ideology. Like the socialists whose ideas they have adopted, they believe a vast and powerful central government should decide how people live their lives. Once the matter is decided, that’s it: You will live in accordance with their dictates, like taking wholly unnecessary health precautions. Sometimes, decision-making is arrived at democratically, vis à vis the ballot box, and sometimes it’s arrived at via the innerworkings of complicated and bureaucratic committees staffed by the revolutionary vanguard and their loyalists.

Indeed, these so-called democratic socialists often drop the word democratic inadvertently. I was struck by this recent clip of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani touting his success at whatever it is he thinks is going well.

Note that he didn’t say he’s a democratic socialist! He implied his own successes speak to the success of socialism, an ideology that has impoverished millions throughout the 20th century.

Today, socialists have so little power that it might feel more natural to laugh at them than to take the threat of their rise seriously. But unfortunately, Democratic primary voters are choosing to send socialists to Congress all over the country. These people have bad economic ideas, bad foreign policy ideas and, as we are occasionally reminded, truly awful ideas about COVID. If these people gained enough political power, friendly reminder that social distancing and vaccines and school closures and business lockdowns and COVID MASKS — perhaps my least favorite governmental intrusion into our liberties in my lifetime — would be coming back. Of course they would be mandatory.

That is socialism’s crowning principle. The government decides, you obey, comrade.

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.

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