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Mike Rowe has one message for critics furious over his socialism comments

August 5, 2026 | | Print Article

After leftists lost it over Mike Rowe calling out the communist candidates in DSA clothing, the skilled workforce advocate delivered a devastating rebuttal.

Lately, the bipartisan team mentality of politics has backed many a Trump Derangement Syndrome suffering Democrat into moving beyond toeing the party line with a hold-your-nose vote to vociferously defending some of the most radical candidates running for office.

After comedian Bill Maher used the words of the Democratic Socialists of America against them to expose the reality of their communist views, Rowe shared the segment, “reminded of how we struggle to reconcile our support for an idea we might like, if it’s promoted by a politician we hate. And vice versa.”

As offense was expressed at the suggestion Democrats clean house rather than blindly embrace communists for the sake of securing a congressional majority in the midterm elections, the host of “Dirty Jobs” fame saw fit to react to some comments directly, beginning, “Not the way I planned on spending my afternoon, but 7,600 comments should not be ignored!”

Having referred to the number of reactions to Maher’s “New Rule” segment on HBO’s “Real Time,” Rowe continued, “Bots, trolls, and personal attacks notwithstanding, the critics of yesterday’s post were dominated by a large and vocal contingent who rushed to remind me that there’s ‘a difference between socialism and communism,’ an obvious indication that they didn’t actually read the post.”

Acknowledging such a difference, he countered that the “fundamental flaw” of commenters resided in their apparent belief that DSA candidates are “both ‘democratic and socialist’ simply because that’s the name of their club.”

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“What I can tell you for sure is that more than a few have called for the complete dismantling of capitalism, free markets, representative government, property rights, borders, police, prisons, and the Constitution in general,” said the founder of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, referring to the extremist plans of the DSA platform. “My post referred to them, as well as a number of elected Democrats who have agreed to campaign on their behalf — including [Californian Gov.] Gavin Newsom, who said, ‘The Democratic Party must accept the DSA in order to take back the Congress.’ His words, not mine.”

Rowe’s nearly 1,800 word post proceeded to respond to other comments directly, refuting whataboutism about supposed fascists on the right as well as the notion that the country is somehow less tolerant of communists now than it was during the 1950s.

“Do you really believe my comments about communists who claim to be communists are synonymous with another Red Scare? If you haven’t noticed … no one in the DSA, including the communists, is being dragged before Congress and made to swear a loyalty oath to the Constitution,” he went on, contrasting the present with the era of WI Sen. Joe McCarthy (R). “Today, a communist in America can run for office…with the endorsement of the governor of California! And the tacit approval of a major political party! Seems to me we’re about as far from McCarthyism as we can get.”

Rowe suggested Democrats have been afforded a layup opportunity to say to the communists, “Hold on, comrade. Our tent is not that big. We respect your right to hate America, but we don’t want you in our party, and we will not support your candidacy.”

“If you say that, I think a lot of Independents would see them as they see John Fetterman, who has, in the eyes of many voters, become the most ‘rational’ Democrat currently in office,” he went on as the senator from Pennsylvania has continued to take shots from outspoken critics aligned with his party.

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Before concluding that his ego hadn’t swelled enough to consider his own run for political office, Rowe spoke to the import of the bipartisan system while cautioning the left about the choice it’s been presented, “If they don’t — if they actually welcome communist candidates into their party — then I’m afraid the Democrats, by default, will offer the American people a very simple choice in November — a party that disavows communism vs. a party that doesn’t.”

The time taken to present his position earned Rowe love and support from many.

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Kevin Haggerty
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