If mainstream party members fail to act, Democrat Senate candidates and eventually the 2028 Presidential nominee will be in the bizarre position of being asked whether they support abolishing their own positions in the government.
As far as political platforms go, the Democratic Socialists of America’s “Workers Deserve More” is radical almost beyond description to the point where there are late night bong–smoking, acid-tripping sessions in college dorm rooms that are more coherent, well-reasoned, and sane. Thus, they begin by asking people to imagine “taking a day off from work in a future without capitalism,” which they somehow promise is a world where you have no responsibilities or obligations, nor are you required to do anything you don’t want to do. Instead, “you enjoy your work; it’s interesting to you,” and even more magically, “You work as much as you are able and no more than needed.” Setting aside that who decides what’s “needed” is undefined, they continue to promise this world will be mostly without bills because everything is apparently free, a community good, a utility or something which somehow makes it readily available to all at no cost whatsoever, despite that everyone currently pays for utilities if you have checked your electric bill recently. Regardless, “You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities.”
Nor is that the only thing they expect Americans to imagine, far from it as the list of promised dreams goes on and on and on. Together, we can “End the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reinforce anti-discrimination laws. Honor all treaties and tribal sovereignty. Enact reparations and massively invest in good jobs, quality housing and infrastructure in neglected minority communities,” “Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor,” “Stop gender violence and end policies that oppress bodily autonomy and intimate life, including patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and childraising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce,” “Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth’s resources for all.” On the foreign policy front, the so-called workers of the world promise the same or perhaps even more, coming incredibly close to peace on earth itself. Together, will “Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court’s mandate to prosecute war crimes,” “Recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return, the right to resist military occupation, and the right to self determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza,” “End economic warfare against countries whose governments act independently of the United States,” and “End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.”
While this is quite the list, to put it politely, the Democratic Socialists are at least sharp enough to understand none of these will happen in a United States that remains governed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so naturally, they propose abolishing the vast majority of the average Americans consider our democracy. This includes, “Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents and restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions. Establish statehood for Washington D.C. and recognize the right to self-determination for all U.S. territories and colonies. Expand and protect voting rights and end voter suppression,” “End political corruption and legalized bribery: get rid of lobbyists, dark money, and Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress,” “Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate,” “Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure,” and “Empower workers to come together and fight the boss. Protect, expand, and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join, and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions, and take political action.” In other words, almost none of our current institutions and systems would remain. The President? Gone! The Supreme Court? Dissolved! Private property? Confiscated. While they don’t outright call for shredding the Constitution and burning the Declaration of Independence, it’s impossible to see how one can eliminate two entire branches of government and half of the third without doing so. Therefore, we should add that to the list.
Lest you believe the Democratic Socialists aren’t serious about these plans and are instead the equivalent of the aforementioned stoned and tripping college students, the organization’s co-chair, Megan Romer appeared on Fox News on Sunday with Shannon Bream just this past weekend. When Ms. Bream asked her point blank, “Just give me a true-or-false on these,” and proceeded to list out their plans, Ms. Romer answered in the affirmative with the slight caveat that some things would happen before others such as the abolition of prisons. Perhaps needless to say, how any of this work remained unsaid, but presumably everyone will be so happy and free in the new utopia, crime would simply cease to exist and there’s be no need for police and prisons in the first place. While anyone is entitled to dream and present to the world their crackpot plans, calling for essentially the political version of John Lennon’s famous song, “Imagine,” there’s something strange about this one because several members of the Democratic Socialists of America are currently Democrat candidates for office and certain former members, such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani are considered kingmakers in the party. If that’s the case, it is reasonable to assume at least some of these ideas have spread well beyond socialism into the mainstream liberal or progressive movement even as that same movement has appointed themselves the champions of American democracy for more than a decade. Given members of their own party are now openly calling to abolish key aspects of that democracy – the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Presidency itself – where are these so-called champions and defenders? Shouldn’t they be standing across history yelling stop or something, you’ve gone too far, these are our precious institutions and democratic norms as they’ve been braying about continuously anytime President Donald Trump is involved?
Though Newsweek admirably attempted to claim these positions and Mr. Romer’s interview sparked “bipartisan alarm,” the reality is there was almost complete and total silence from Democrat leaders. In fact, the only sitting Democrat in a senior position they could find to sound the so-called alarm was renegade Pennsylvania Senator Jon Fetterman, who predictably, given he is usually at odds with the radicals in his party, claimed, “This isn’t a big tent—it’s anarchy. Why can’t Dems call out the DSA?” Otherwise, they cited a candidate for Senate in the reasonably conservative South Carolina, Annie Andrews, who I am not personally familiar with, but I imagine is likely smart enough to realize these ideas would be anathema to a southern state, which she alluded to in her own response. “I can’t understand how anyone claiming to fight for working people could hold and promote such ludicrous beliefs. These ideas don’t reflect American values, and they certainly don’t represent South Carolina. If this is what the DSA stands for, it’s completely un-American and unhinged,” she wrote. An “activist” Shannon Watts, whom I never heard of, and a former House Member, Tim Ryan. While I certainly welcome any sanity that can be found in the Democrat Party, conspicuously absent were the leaders and big names. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had not a word to say that I could find, refusing to either endorse or reject the DSA platform. Previously, Minority Leader Jeffries claimed the Democrat Party had a “big tent,” as alluded to by Senator Fetterman, suggesting these views are welcome. Progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is a DSA member herself, commented on the notion of abolishing the senate, but was decidedly vague in whether or not that’s her preference. “I’m a House member, we all hate the Senate,” she joked before claiming. “No, I mean listen, we’re working with the institutions that we have, this is a constitutional question.” Late in the same interview, however, she ludicrously claimed it wasn’t her job to have a position on the structure of the government of which she’s a part. “These are kind of highfalutin questions that can only be resolved with a constitutional convention of everyday people,” she bizarrely deflected. At the same time, she has not been shy about endorsing fellow DSA members, which to me makes it at least somewhat reasonable to believe she’s onboard with the platform.
At this point, a lack of denunciation should rightly be seen as implicit support, especially given their supposedly laser-like focus on protecting our democracy. If they were interested in championing the norms and institutions they hold sacred, one would think members of their own party calling for them to be dismantled would prompt a remark or two. Since it hasn’t, everyone has a right to assume the worst including the truth that they’ve been full of it the entire time, believing only that positioning themselves as defenders of democracy would hurt President Donald Trump, making it about power and nothing else. Ironically, Democrat Senate candidates and eventually the 2028 Presidential nominee will be in the bizarre position of being asked whether they support abolishing their own positions in the government. How strange is that?
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 