A Socialism Conference Speaker Says the Democratic Party “Must Be Destroyed” and “Can’t Be Reasoned With.” He’s Not a Fringe Nobody — He’s a Tenured Professor Who Just Ran for Governor of California.
During the Sept. 4–5, 2026 run of the four-day Socialism 2026 conference at a downtown Chicago hotel, University of California, Santa Barbara history professor Dr. Rudolph “Butch” Ware told the room that the Democratic Party is not an ally to be reformed. “The Democrats cannot be reasoned with,” he said. “They must be destroyed.”
Video of the remarks, captured and posted to X by an account called @WesternLensman, moved through NewsBusters, Jonathan Turley’s legal-commentary blog, PJ Media, RedState, and The College Fix within 48 hours. Ware is not an anonymous voice from the crowd. He holds a tenured position at a University of California campus, was the Green Party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee, and had just finished a write-in campaign for governor of California that outpolled 49 candidates who made the printed ballot.
This page documents exactly what Ware said, who he is, how California’s Democratic Socialists of America and other conference figures fit into the picture, and where this rhetoric sits against a broader pattern of violent language surfacing at socialist gatherings.
- “They must be destroyed” — Prof. Butch Ware's verbatim description of the Democratic Party at Socialism 2026 in Chicago · NewsBusters, The College Fix
- Sept. 4–5, 2026 — dates of Ware's remarks during the four-day Socialism 2026 conference at Chicago's Hyatt Regency McCormick Place · Socialism 2026, RedState
- 22,493 write-in votes — Ware's total in the June 2026 California governor primary — more than 49 ballot-listed candidates received, and the largest write-in total in a CA top-two primary · Ballot Access News
- 862,049 votes — the 2024 Green Party presidential ticket's national total, with Ware as Jill Stein's running mate · Wikipedia
- “Do not write-in Butch Ware” — California DSA's own 2026 voter guide, distancing the organization from Ware's campaign and past statements · California DSA
Ware’s appearance came during Socialism 2026, a four-day gathering at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency McCormick Place organized by Haymarket Books in partnership with groups including the Democratic Socialists of America, the People’s Center for Palestine, and the Chicago Cuba Coalition, according to RedState’s advance coverage of the event. Multiple outlets describe his remarks as coming during a session on Marxism; the conference’s own program lists a dedicated “Marxism Series” of classes running the morning of Friday, September 4.
In the clip, Ware argued that the Democratic Party’s furthest-left elected officials — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D/DSA) and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D, DSA-backed) — are themselves an obstacle to the revolution he wants. “They are going to keep giving us the Mamdanis and the Abdul El-Sayeds,” he told the room, “because they are there to contain radicalism.” He then delivered the line that gave this story its headline: “The Democrats cannot be reasoned with. They must be destroyed.”
Ware is not an anonymous activist. He is an associate professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, where he specializes in West African and Islamic intellectual history and earned roughly $211,683 in salary in 2024, according to public compensation figures reported by The College Fix. He was Jill Stein’s running mate on the 2024 Green Party presidential ticket, which drew 862,049 votes nationally, and in 2026 he ran for governor of California — disqualified from the printed primary ballot in a dispute over tax-document filings, then ran as a write-in instead.
The write-in campaign was no joke. Ware pulled 22,493 write-in votes in the June 2, 2026 primary — more than 49 candidates who did appear on the ballot, and reportedly the largest write-in total recorded in a California top-two primary, per Ballot Access News. He finished 13th overall in a crowded field. He is, in short, a credentialed academic with real electoral reach in the country’s largest state, not a person whose views can be waved off as inconsequential.
UC Santa Barbara professor Dr. Butch Ware at 'Marxism conference' says Democrats "must be destroyed." "They are going to keep giving us the Mamdanis and the Abdul El-Sayeds...because they are there to contain radicalism." "The Democrats cannot be reasoned with. They must be destroyed."
A second video from the same appearance, posted the next day, showed Ware turning from rhetoric to preparation. “You cannot call yourself a revolutionary and not be talking about training with weapons,” he said, mocking attendees he called “clickety-clack revolutionaries” who, in his words, had “never been in a f*cking gunfight.” “Y’all ain’t nowhere near ready for a war in the streets,” he told the crowd. “You better get ready for both kinds of war. And if you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.”
Ware was not the only speaker that weekend calling for structural upheaval. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, reviewing footage from the same conference, wrote that City University of New York professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore addressed the crowd on ending capitalism, and University of Chicago professor Eman Abdelhadi spoke on dismantling institutional systems. Turley’s post is commentary, not a court filing or transcript, but its description of the conference’s tenor matches what NewsBusters, PJ Media, RedState, and The College Fix each separately reported from the same event.
UCSB prof Dr. Butch Ware tells "Marxism" conference: Be ready for "war in the streets." "Some of these clickety-clack revolutionaries have never been in a f*cking gunfight." "Y'all ain't nowhere near ready for a war in the streets. You better get ready for both kinds of war."
California’s Democratic Socialists of America had already broken publicly with Ware before the conference — not over any Chicago remarks, but over his write-in campaign itself. The organization’s official 2026 voter guide told members: “We especially urge you to not write-in Butch Ware, who failed to qualify for the ballot and has lashed out against Californian Left, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Peace and Freedom Party (PFP), and DSA.” The same guide cited past anti-abortion and “transphobic” statements it said Ware had doubled down on during his campaign. Ware ran as a Green Party candidate, not a Democrat or a DSA member, and DSA’s statement predates and does not address his September remarks specifically.
The episode is not the first time violent language at a socialist gathering has produced real consequences for the speaker. In September 2025, Texas State University fired associate history professor Thomas Alter — a different person, at a separate 2025 online event called the Revolutionary Socialism Conference — after video surfaced of him asking how anyone expects “to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world…that of the United States.” University Chancellor Brian McCall said Alter had “advocated for the overthrow of our government”; Alter’s attorney called the firing a First Amendment violation, and the case is still working through the courts. It is a separate incident from Socialism 2026, cited here only because it shows this kind of language has already carried professional consequences once for a tenured academic.
Dr. Rudolph “Butch” Ware — associate professor of history, UC Santa Barbara; 2024 Green Party vice-presidential nominee; 2026 Green Party write-in candidate for California governor.
Zohran Mamdani (D/DSA) — Mayor of New York City; named by Ware as insufficiently radical.
Abdul El-Sayed (D, DSA-backed) — Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Michigan; named by Ware alongside Mamdani.
California DSA — publicly urged members not to write in Ware in its own 2026 voter guide.
Thomas Alter — former Texas State University history professor, fired in 2025 over remarks at a separate socialist conference; his termination is being challenged in court.
A tenured University of California professor who ran a serious statewide campaign told a room full of activists that the Democratic Party “must be destroyed” and that revolutionaries need to be “training with weapons” and ready for “war in the streets.” California’s own DSA chapter wants nothing to do with him, and a different professor lost his job over similar language at a different conference a year earlier. None of that erases what was said, on video, at a national conference in Chicago — or the fact that the people it targets first are the Democratic Party’s own most prominent socialist-aligned elected officials.
