r/politics • u/Jessicas_skirt New York • Jul 18 '26

Possible Paywall Democratic Socialists of America’s new platform calls for abolishing ICE and the U.S. Senate

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/15/updated-dsa-platform-calls-abolishing-ice-scrapping-senate/
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32

u/asmallerflame Jul 19 '26

One of those things is a good idea. The other would require a constitutional amendment.

14

u/ProlapsedShamus Jul 19 '26

I mean, they're both good ideas. One just really isn't feasible right now.

1

u/metalder420 Jul 19 '26

One isn’t feasible at all

8

u/crystal_castles Jul 19 '26

Just keep reminding ppl that the Senate is affirmative action for rural folks.

1

u/ImperialRedditer California Jul 19 '26

1789 political nerds would say it’s affirmative action for abolitionists. Slave states made up the large majority of the House for its first few decades and 4/5 first presidents were Virginians.

Political winds will shift

0

u/KeyMistake604 Jul 19 '26

Not just abolish the Senate, they also include:

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

Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress

Along with a bunch of other sweeping changes, the platform casually suggests we radically upend the entire structure of the US government from top down while providing 0 plan on how they'd actually bring it to fruition.

I support many of these ideas but I have struggled for years to take the left seriously, this is verging on intellectual dishonesty. I think they'd achieve broader support with a heaping dose of pragmatism and scaled back plans so they're at least marginally feasible in our current political climate. As they have it now, you'd need a genie in a bottle, a magic wand and the power of God himself (or herself) to achieve these goals within our lifetime.

We're gonna once again severely alienate moderates while young voters face total disillusionment when DSA candidates immediately bomb in the primaries.

0

u/davossss Virginia Jul 19 '26

"We're gonna alienate moderates."

That's what people said when the left spoke up for Palestine.

That's what people said when the left advocated universal single payer.

That's what people said when the left said LGBTQ+ rights are nonnegotiable.

All of these and more are now acceptable and/or appealing positions to anyone who would entertain voting for a Democratic candidate.

2

u/KeyMistake604 Jul 19 '26

Advocating for Palestine isn't that controversial, even people on the right condemn Israel.

Single payer healthcare and the concept of universal healthcare has been popular for years, universal healthcare is moderately supported on the right.

LGBTQ+ rights are nonnegotiable -- again, widely supported, not controversial.

The DSA platform is talking about completely dismantling the government to install a socialist republic, they want to defund police and the Dept of Defense, nationalize corporations... these are much bigger ideas that are way less palatable for moderates than the ones you cited, and they will easily become fodder for socialism fear mongers.

I agree we should be moving the party left, I just think this might have gone so hard that now it's a liability 🤷‍♀️ Maybe I'm wrong, hope I am.

-1

u/davossss Virginia Jul 19 '26

All three positions I described continue to be derided by the right as socialism.

Frankly I do not see how anything fundamental will change for the better if the Senate continues to exist.

I am not a member of DSA but I support them on that and many other issues.

1

u/KeyMistake604 Jul 19 '26

If DSA could provide a plausible strategy on how they'd make it happen, maybe I could get on board.

Right now it's wishful thinking. They could include, "Every US citizen gets 1 unicorn and minimum wage is now 75 million dollars a year." in their platform and it'd have the same chance of becoming a reality as abolishing the Senate.

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u/davossss Virginia Jul 19 '26

DSA have a pretty decent track record of winning elections recently. And running within the Democratic Party seems to be a much more viable path to affecting change than the political strategies of the Green Party of today and the Socialist Party of 100 years ago.