Nearly 200 House Democrats recently voted against a resolution condemning socialism, a stark reminder of how far the party has drifted from America’s founding principles, according to Republican lawmakers marking Constitution Day.
The Republican Study Committee seized on the September 17 commemoration of the nation’s founding document to draw a sharp contrast between constitutional governance and the growing socialist influence within the Democratic Party. Their warnings came as several candidates aligned with socialist ideology secured Democratic nominations for congressional seats across the country.
“Today, Democrats can’t even bring themselves to reject an ideology that has killed more than 100 million people and failed everywhere it’s ever been tried,” RSC Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) stated.
The 192 Democrats who voted against the anti-socialism resolution represent a significant portion of the House minority. That vote, combined with the nomination of socialist-aligned candidates, has alarmed conservative lawmakers who see the Constitution as a bulwark against collectivist ideology.
Pfluger invoked the document’s 239-year legacy in his remarks. “[At] 239 years ago, our Founders gave us a Constitution built on liberty, limited government, and the belief that power belongs to We the People,” he stated.
The DSA’s official platform includes proposals that would fundamentally alter the constitutional structure the framers designed. The organization calls for abolishing the Senate entirely and packing the Supreme Court with additional justices. Both measures would dismantle the separation of powers that has defined American governance since 1787.
That structure, a bicameral legislature working alongside an independent judiciary and executive branch, was designed to prevent the concentration of power that socialist systems inevitably produce.
Venezuela offers a cautionary tale. The communist government there moved to abolish the country’s Senate and add justices to its Supreme Court, creating what became a one-voice system of government. Socialist dictator Hugo Chavez oversaw these changes, which paved the way for the authoritarian regime that has since impoverished the once-prosperous nation.
The RSC’s Constitution Day message arrives at a moment when younger Americans increasingly express openness to socialist ideas, often unaware of the ideology’s track record of oppression and economic devastation. The committee’s members appear determined to make that history impossible to ignore as the election season continues.
