cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49686846
The 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.
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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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DSA’s vision includes a significant expansion of the House once the Senate is eliminated.
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.”
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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.
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.
Naturilation was restricted to “free white men” in 1790, but it didn’t stop other from immigrating here. In fact, the country existed for 100 years without ANY limitations on immigration. Only in 1875 did they start to restrict “forced laborers and prostitutes” with the Page Law, but that was primarily aimed at and enforce upon Chinese Women and followed up by the much moee explicit Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It really wasnt until 1924 when a nationality quota system was introduced with the National Origins Act that Immigration in general was severely limited and the Border Control was Established. In 1954, the infamous and disrespectfully named Project Wetback was the first time that quasi-military tactics to arrest and deport Mexican undocumented laborers and terroristic fear tactics were used to encourage “self-deportation”. ICE has only existed since 2003, after the Department Of Homeland Security was created in 2002, as a reaction to 9/11, essentially an evolution of INS with a new militaristic flair. It’s also worth noting that 9/11 wouldn’t have been stopped if ICE has existed. All 19 perpetrators were here legally.
My point is that the history of US law around immigrants has been explicitly racist since the beginning. But even then, actual closed borders wasn’t truly a thing until 1924. For the majority of American history, barring the Chinese Exclusion Act and other anti-asian immigrant laws, the borders were open and things were fine. We treat Ellis Island like hallowed ground where millions of our ancestors made there way into this country. There was no quota, no application and waiting period, no need to meet certain education or skill requirements. Conservatives want you to forget that, as well as the explicit racism of our past they are recreating today. ICE shouldn’t exist. None of this border shit should.