He describes internal pressure against dissenters, increasing openness to communism, and a demographic shift toward younger and more affluent, less experienced, and more radical members during an interview with The Free Press. In 2015 in Boston, it was a few older men and I who were the core of the old DSA chapter," Altman explained. It went from this, like you say, pretty moderate social-political group to a cultural juggernaut that it is today." "There were debates at the time about how much Leninism do we want to let into DSA. The paper members might be, you know, think AOC and Bernie Sanders are great and let's get Medicare for All."