{"id":2668280,"date":"2026-09-23T09:17:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigna-democrat-operative-explains-the-rise-of-the-radical-dsa-left\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T09:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:26:38","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigna-democrat-operative-explains-the-rise-of-the-radical-dsa-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigna-democrat-operative-explains-the-rise-of-the-radical-dsa-left\/","title":{"rendered":"A Democrat Operative Explains The Rise Of The Radical DSA Left"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigna-democrat-operative-explains-the-rise-of-the-radical-dsa-left%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2668280&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The excerpt discusses how the Democratic Socialists of America gained significant influence within the Democratic Party, with a focus on the role of political organization and fundraising over ideological principles. Evan Barker, a former campaign consultant, explains that their rise was largely due to being strategic and well-connected rather than having strong policy ideas. Her personal story traces her journey from working on mainstream campaigns to shifting towards the far-left, highlighting how identity politics and woke culture increasingly dominated Democratic messaging. Barker critiques the party\u2019s move toward racial and identity-based narratives, which she believes have led to internal conflicts and superficiality in politics. After quitting campaign work and witnessing the 2024 DNC, she became disillusioned with the party&#8217;s hypocrisy and corruption, speaking out publicly. Her book, *Nothing Left*, provides an insider\u2019s view of the political maneuvering and emphasizes how money and organization have overshadowed meaningful policy, leaving the government increasingly superficial and ineffective. Despite some superficial treatment of larger ideological issues,the book offers a candid look into the inner workings of leftist political campaigns.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As the midterms approach, a big question that looms over political discourse is how exactly the far-left Democratic Socialists of America took over so much of the Democrat Party. For most Americans\u2019 lifetimes, the Democrats had a reputation for running a tight ship and running strong political campaigns. Even the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-refusal-to-wield-power-destroyed-conservatism-and-maybe-the-country\/\" title=\"Republicans&#039; Failure to Exercise Power Led to the Decline of Conservatism and Potentially the Nation\">astute political commentators<\/a> have been surprised by the sudden popularity of politicians whose platform is primarily based on wealth confiscation and hating America.<\/p>\n<p>While most analyses exploring this phenomenon tend to focus on the changing demographics of the electorate, the emerging K-shaped economy, or the slippery slope of liberalism as the reason for this development, the real cause is much more banal. As a former Democrat campaign consultant, Evan Barker recounts in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Nothing-Left-Confessions-Democratic-Operative\/dp\/B0G2KXYCK1\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36CXRGM8FPA39&#038;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3tQkiCJ7GXGiuPyfMpaw1aNxt6eOSqVLeUgG5x6e7DlzMJbYObtz5KQIN-h2V01h2ZjCkV1qPiyMh9bEvZtQY9tfk3sseax54D5i9RUObEIyQoiLyBHwn65W4S-lXMbXmgBNszxZfCWI8cMop0kbJ1kMlCGbt9I_H6UagSB5AvM_p212eI1BqtHKHN-VpFjC8DBPe_pxeaXLD_ugcxOaX8aGawawGF7Cu4kL8TI1RlY.embFUHvp9mGmkXYcWyO9Q39OJaKXMXC_w8AxqPeV7R8&#038;dib_tag=se&#038;keywords=nothing+left&#038;qid=1787764720&#038;sprefix=nothing+lef,aps,165&#038;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative<\/em><\/a>  that much of the success of the far left can be attributed to its being in the right place at the right time with the right people. More than anything else, Barker\u2019s journey demonstrates that organization and securing political victories matter far more in defining a political party than actual ideals or governing principles.<\/p>\n<p>Barker\u2019s story begins in the warm afterglow of President Barack Obama\u2019s presidential victory in 2008. A campaign intern at the time, Barker reminisces, \u201cThe night Barack Obama won his first presidential race was one of the happiest moments of my life.\u201d As an intern still in high school, she became hooked on the thrill of talking to voters, making calls, and crafting messaging.<\/p>\n<p>Although she grew up in Kansas, her first official gig as a campaign staffer started in New Jersey with a wealthy woman running for U.S. Congress whom she not-so-subtly calls \u201cKaren.\u201d Barker quickly came to realize that Karen is an entitled harridan who treats her staff like garbage. Nevertheless, she was part of the \u201cHillary Clinton wing of the party\u201d and in line with the establishment, so everyone around her tolerated it. Still young, Barker soon cracks under the abuse and blows up at Karen, leaving her first campaign in a blaze of glory.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, rather than preventing her from working on any more Democrat campaigns, this incident mainly causes her to migrate to the far-left wing of the Democrat Party headed by Sen. Bernie Sanders. This restores her faith in politics, as she gets to work on a campaign back in Kansas for Democrat Brent Welder, who genuinely hoped to fix the system.<\/p>\n<p>She then witnessed firsthand how the establishment deals with upstarts, with Welder losing his primary to Sharice Davids, \u201ca White House Fellow, a former boxer, and lesbian Native American.\u201d Despite Welder\u2019s hard work of raising money and fetching endorsements, he was easily flattened by a diversity hire, a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n<p>Undeterred, Barker joined other left-wing campaigns, earning a reputation for being an effective fundraiser. Because of her humble background as a working-class girl from the Midwest, she has far less compunction about being aggressive with donors and putting in the time. She even mentions that her inspiration for her work was Alec Baldwin\u2019s character in <em>Glengarry Glen Ross<\/em>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=czOpDN8Knr4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">famously berates<\/a> a group of real estate agents in the harshest terms possible to close their sales. Indeed, as she describes her role in the campaigns, it becomes clear that so much of politics revolves around asking rich people for money, not policy or ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, the far-left wing continued scoring more wins, particularly after AOC defeated incumbent Joe Crowley in 2018. Barker\u2019s star also rose as she took a job with the campaign consultancy Left Rising, where she \u201cmade more money than [she\u2019d] ever made before, and \u2026 rose to the best fundraising consultant job possible in progressive politics.\u201d This put her in contact with several left-wing campaigns, which was a massive boon for leftist candidates who generally \u201csucked at fundraising.\u201d Equipped with a streamlined professional operation \u2014 thanks in no small part to Barker herself \u2014 many of these candidates went on to win their races, gradually forcing leaders of the establishment to compromise their positions.<\/p>\n<p>But, as it had with everything else it touched, woke culture wrought havoc on the far-left Democrats. Barker describes how Democrats began to incorporate Race Class Narrative (RCN) into all their messaging: \u201c[RCN] trained politicians to think of every issue as an identity issue first and foremost.\u201d Whether it was reforming health care, raising the minimum wage, or seeking social justice, politicians had to explain how black and brown people were more affected than anyone else. Naturally, this led to favoring black and brown female candidates over white males, regardless of merit.<\/p>\n<p>This trend also precipitated multiple incidents in which women of color accused Barker of having unearned privilege and being racist every time she refused to grovel to them. Although she put up with this for years, she finally quit her work in 2022 when asked to go through DEI training. At this point, she was also married and had a young child, which contributed to her changing attitude about the leftist Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of years after quitting campaign work, Barker officially broke up with the party after attending the Democratic National Convention in 2024 and seeing Kamala Harris coronated to replace Joe Biden. Fed up with the hypocrisy and corruption of the whole affair, she posted a video about her miserable experience at the DNC, which unexpectedly went viral and marked her as a high-ranking apostate from the Democrat Party. She has since been hosted and encouraged by various Republican leaders and conservative media outlets, though she maintains her political independence and sides with neither party.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, considering its subject matter, <em>Nothing Left<\/em> is surprisingly fun and engaging. Barker\u2019s assertive personality is definitely felt in her concise and fast-moving narrative that rarely stops for breath. While this has the effect of making her story more authentic and readable, it occasionally detracts from the larger point of her experience. Barker is usually so fixated on the day-to-day challenges that she rarely reflects on the meaning behind her work.<\/p>\n<p>This reluctance to expound on certain points also becomes frustrating when certain big names make an appearance. True, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Cori Bush, and Jasmine Crockett are given some additional attention, but not enough. This could be Barker\u2019s way of showing that there is nothing deep about these people: Bernie is an old curmudgeon who hardly talks with anyone; AOC is a vapid young woman with little to say; Cori Bush is an entitled slob who refuses to do any real work; and Crockett is a \u201cbeautiful disaster\u201d who seems more interested in becoming an influencer than a politician. Still, even one who doesn\u2019t work in politics could probably have guessed this already, and Barker seems oddly reluctant to heap any serious criticism on these individuals when she has every opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n<p>This same drawback appears in Barker\u2019s inadequate treatment of leftist ideology. She seems happy to provide anecdotes showing leftist excess, but she has very little say about the hysterias that overtook the left during Covid, the death of George Floyd, the election of Donald Trump, or the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In every case, Barker will zoom past these important moments to discuss a tiff she had with a coworker or relate a random story about her grandfather whom she never knew. Perhaps she does this to make herself more human and relatable, but it also makes her narrative incomplete and unnecessarily superficial at times.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, the book\u2019s virtues easily outweigh these criticisms. Those few readers hoping for an in-depth analysis of the Democrat Party may want to supplement Barker\u2019s book with some other texts to have a fuller picture. But for the majority of readers curious to read an insider\u2019s account of how the sausage is made in leftist political campaigns, they will be more than satisfied.<\/p>\n<p>Barker definitely sheds light on a corrupt process that continues to plague both political parties in America and reveals why some ideas rise to the top while others sink into obscurity. Whenever money replaces the message, she rightly laments that there is really \u201cnothing left\u201d of the government to care about or reform.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher and freelance writer in the Dallas area. He is the founding editor of <a href=\"https:\/\/everymancommentary.substack.com\/\">The Everyman<\/a>, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and has written for essays for The American Mind, The Stream, Religion and Liberty, The Blaze, and elsewhere. He is also the host of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/everyman-commentary\/id1826292273\">The Everyman Commentary Podcast<\/a>.&#8221; Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EverymanComm\">X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How the far-left took over the Democrat Party<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":2668281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Book-Cover-Featured-Image-3.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[32923,74849,36260],"class_list":["post-2668280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-democratic-party","tag-dsa","tag-left-wing-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Book-Cover-Featured-Image-3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2668280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668291,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668280\/revisions\/2668291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2668281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2668280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2668280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2668280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}