worldwide Socialist International was the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) until mid-2017, when the latter voted to disaffiliate from that organization for its perceived acceptance of neoliberal economic policies. In 2008, the DSA supported Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in his race against Republican candidate John McCain. Following Obama's election, many on the right began to allege that his administration's policies were socialistic, a claim rejected by the DSA and the Obama administration alike. The widespread use of the word socialism as a political epithet against the Obama government by its opponents caused National Director Frank Llewellyn to declare that "over the past 12 months, the Democratic Socialists of America has received more media attention than it has over the past 12 years." Noam Chomsky, a member of the DSA and the Industrial Workers of the World, is described by The New York Times as "arguably the most important intellectual alive" and has been on the list of the most cited authors in modern history. Redneck Revolt, a socialist pro-guns organization, was founded in 2009. Although the group does not identify itself as part of the political left, nor as politically liberal, it has been argued that the group's ideology is a form of libertarian socialism. The Socialist Rifle Association, a similar socialist organization, was founded in 2018. The Occupy Wall Street movement provided a breeding ground for anti-capitalist activism that featured anarchists and socialists, and gave a renewed interest to socialist thought. The long-term background of Occupy begins with the Great Recession, which boosted sentiment for the anti-Capitalist and Social Democratic left, and created a movement against rampant wealth inequality, greed, and rallied for corporations to be held accountable for their incessant lobbying and economic strong-arming of the personal wealth of the owner-class. According to Holly Campbell: "In addition, the Occupy movement itself also created a number of spaces through which to communicate and exercise dissent—physical spaces through encampments (for their duration), a virtual space of discussion through social media, and an intellectual space through, again, the language of popular occupation and 'the 99%.' All of these spaces have provided a place for people to gather and partake in a sustained dialogue through which to share stories, generate knowledge, and develop resources for dissent against the forces of neoliberal capitalism." Although the Occupy movement did falter, it did help to revitalize the American Left, which lost considerable influence since