Democratic Socialism Simulator is (tragically, regrettably) still as relevant in 2024

polygon.com:

Happy Fourth of July, I guess.

Not feeling so patriotic after the one-two punch of the disastrous Trump-Biden debate on June 27 and the Supreme Court turning our presidents into unimpeachable monarchs on July 1? Same, buddy.

On the (very small, dim, fleeting) bright side, it’s a great time to talk about socialism. And it’s always a great time to talk about games, which is why I’m revisiting Molleindustria’s Democratic Socialism Simulator. The turn-based decision-making sim, which was released in February 2020, lets you play out presidential actions as if you were a democratic socialist elected to the office. (Yes, Democratic National Committee, I know you’ll never let that happen. You’ve made that very clear.)

The scenarios are presented by political actors illustrated as animals, like the lobbyist who looks like a shark or the activist who looks like a panther, which helps keep this game from becoming more depressing than it is informative. As you make decisions like whether to forgive student debt and whether to openly support unionization efforts, a slew of metrics and graphs at the bottom of the screen display the impact of your choices.

Your decisions don’t just impact the tangible things like budget, though; you also have to keep eyes on the amount of power you’re providing the populace, how your choices are impacting the environment, and which voters you might alienate with your rhetoric. You have to keep enough seats in Congress to be able to pass decisions, too. In short, if you go full commie, you’ll lose the next election or be overthrown. If you go hard on the free market, the same will happen.

But the aim of the game — to get reelected and complete two full terms of presidency — isn’t necessarily the point of playing. At least not now, four years after the game was released and after months of rolling disappointments from literally every branch of the U.S. government.

I’m thrilled to report that the only parts of Democratic Socialism Simulator that are