Democratic Socialists of America’s new platform calls for abolishing ICE and the U.S. Senate
by Seth McLaughlin · The Washington TimesThe Democratic Socialists of America has released an updated platform that calls for a sweeping remake of the political system, including eliminating the U.S. Senate and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which the organization has publicly advocated since 2018.
The revised “Workers Deserve More” platform says the country’s political institutions must be rebuilt from the ground up, said Michaela Brangan, a North New Jersey DSA member who helped write the platform.
The platform’s language calls for replacing the president and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress. The socialists argue that these changes would curb concentrated power in Washington and create a more democratic system.
DSA announced that it surpassed 120,000 members as of July 4, and its candidates have secured high‑profile primary victories. The “comrades” at DSA said the rattled Democratic establishment has been asleep at the wheel.
DSA leaders say they are trying to convert that momentum into a broader influence on national debates and that any candidate the group endorses must support the platform.
The updated platform opens with warnings about war zones across the Middle East, the spread of detention camps and data centers, rising temperatures and soaring costs of basic goods. It argues that a “billionaire class” is dividing workers and fueling desperation.
It describes a world in which “the bosses” are carrying out a plan visible in images of conflict abroad, in the construction of detention facilities at home and in the rising cost of living.
The party says workers are being pitted against one another and displaced by artificial intelligence, leaving people “desperate and miserable” as capitalism turns toward right‑wing authoritarianism. It says both major parties serve “the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, sounded the alarm about what he described as the existential threat the DSA platform poses to the U.S.
“We need America to wake up,” he said. “This is not a game. This is not our fathers’ Democratic Party. We are not arguing over nominal tax rates. We are arguing over whether freedom will survive. We are in a philosophical war to save the greatest nation in the history of the world.”
Moderate Democrats have tried to distance themselves from the DSA. Some, fearing the socialists will poison voters against Democratic candidates, have called for the DSA to start its own political party.
“I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Jaime Harrison, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, wrote on social media. “Focus on building the party you actually support.”
DSA’s vision includes a significant expansion of the House once the Senate is eliminated.
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Ms. Brangan told members on a Tuesday conference call that the Senate is “more loyal to itself and their donors than their own constituents.” She argued that enlarging the House would move the country closer to what she described as a more representative democracy.
“The Senate is an anachronism, and it’s completely idiosyncratic to the United States,” Ms. Brangan said. “This has been around for over 200 years, and it’s not working.”
She said a House expansion would be a step toward “a true democracy.”
Frances Gill, a National Political Committee member from DSA Los Angeles who presented the platform webinar, told members that the organization’s structural proposals may sound dramatic but resonate strongly with people, thus scaring both major parties.
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“These ideas, like, they sound so radical, but they’re not that radical,” she said. “They’re radical in the sense of being really cool, but actually they resonate with people like crazy.”
Ms. Gill said frustration with presidential power is widespread and has intensified under President Trump.
“Everybody sees that Trump is super evil. I mean, every president since the founding of the country has been super evil, but somehow we have one that is even more evil, and people get that,” she told members.
Even “normie Democrats” recognize the dangers she associates with Mr. Trump, she said, arguing that the moment lets DSA make the case that “it’s this political system that we’ve created that is concentrating power in the hands of the presidency, and that is a huge problem.”
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That argument underpins the platform’s call to replace the presidency and the Supreme Court with an executive and a judiciary selected by and subordinate to Congress. DSA leaders frame the shift as a move toward a system that would reduce unilateral decision‑making and prevent future presidents from steering the country into unnecessary conflicts.
Beyond institutional overhauls, the platform lays out a broad set of policy goals: imposing wealth taxes on the richest Americans and corporations, canceling student debt, establishing a 32-hour workweek, granting blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, enacting “Medicare for All,” providing universal childcare and a pledge to position the organization at the forefront of the fight for transgender rights.
On foreign policy, the platform calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to U.S. military and economic aid to Israel.
The platform also includes a “feminism for all” plank that calls for queer liberation, an end to gender‑based violence and bans on sex discrimination. It opposes restrictions on abortion, childbirth, gender expression and gender transition.
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The document casts the DSA mission as building a working‑class political force capable of drafting a new constitution and creating what it describes as a democratic socialist republic.
It says some demands may be achievable under the current system, but “complete victory” will require building a new society from the ground up.
“We push these demands to their furthest extent today, so we can fight for their fullest realization in a socialist future,” it says.
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Seth McLaughlin
smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com
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