Jessica Tarlov wants Americans to believe the Democratic Socialists of America remain a noisy little faction loitering at the edge of the Democrat Party.

Her performance on The Five suggested either remarkable denial or a willingness to defend nearly anything when the political moment demands it.

The problem is that the socialist movement is no longer hiding its ambitions.

Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer recently appeared with Shannon Bream on Fox News Sunday and offered viewers a remarkably blunt description of what her movement wants to impose on the country.

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That agenda includes abolishing the United States Senate, eliminating the presidency and Supreme Court, granting mass amnesty, and approving reparations.

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These are not minor policy disagreements or harmless college seminar fantasies, but demands aimed directly at dismantling the constitutional structure of the nation.

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Tarlov nevertheless brushed aside concerns about the growing number of socialist candidates.

She described the Romer interview as “catnip for everybody that is concerned about the rise of the DSA wing."

That phrase reveals the entire strategy.

Instead of confronting what socialist activists openly say, Democrats and their media defenders accuse Republicans of exaggerating by playing clips of socialists explaining their own agenda.

"If the DSA representatives who are in elections won every single one of them, it would still be under 10% of the caucus. That's the reality here."

That argument treats the number of official members as the only measurement that matters.

Political movements gain power by shifting party priorities, controlling activist networks, intimidating primary candidates, and making yesterday’s radical position into tomorrow’s standard Democrat talking point.

Tarlov also tried to create distance between the socialist organization and Abdul El Sayed, a candidate supported by its activists.

She claimed he does not formally affiliate with the group and identifies as a capitalist, as though selecting the right label magically erases a politician’s record.

El Sayed has appeared at six separate fundraisers connected to the organization and has taken the stage at its events.

Calling him a capitalist does not erase those ties, and it certainly does not answer why socialist activists view his candidacy as worthy of their money and energy.

This is bigger than one candidate or one election cycle.

The Democrat Party has spent years drifting toward government control, massive redistribution, open border policies, and hostility toward the institutions that restrain centralized power.

Polling shows the ideological shift is not confined to a few loud activists.

A recent CBS poll found that 58 percent of Democrats view socialism positively, while only 18 percent view it negatively, making Democrats the only major group in America with a favorable view of socialism.

Most Americans still prefer capitalism, which explains the frantic effort to attach the word “capitalist” to candidates whose political relationships tell a different story.

Tarlov knows the socialist label remains toxic beyond the Democrat base, so she is trying to scrub it away before voters start paying closer attention.

"So while Republicans, and I understand why you're doing it, are spending all their time running clips of this... feeding it and feeding it and feeding it," she said.

Republicans do not need to invent the material because socialist activists keep providing it themselves.

When political figures openly discuss abolishing major branches of government and transforming the nation, broadcasting their words is basic public accountability, not some elaborate partisan trick.

Tarlov ended with a confident prediction that Democrats will win regardless of how often Republicans highlight the socialist movement.

"So you can keep talking about this until you're blue in the face, but the country will go blue while you are doing it," she said.

It was a cute television line, but it sounded more like bravado than confidence.

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Democrats understand that Republicans can connect candidates across the country to a movement that openly rejects core American institutions and enjoys increasingly warm support inside the party.

That is why the dismissals are becoming louder as the evidence becomes harder to ignore.

Tarlov may call socialism a fringe concern, but voters can see the activists, the polling, the fundraisers, and the candidates gathering beneath the same increasingly red banner.

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