It is in this vein that I present the leading spokespersons of the DSA.
I have said that Socialism is not the welfare state. As I’ve observed, the government’s so-called social safety net, while it is socialistic in that it is tax-funded government supplied goods, is layered on a Capitalist-oriented fundamental premise, the rights of the individual. Socialism, however—in any of its manifestations—is the counter-revolution, and the best evidence of that proposition is in the words of one of America’s Socialist leaders.
Romer didn’t actually say “Our Goal is to Destroy Americans’ Liberty”. But she set up a straw man that means precisely that.
Let’s examine her gimmick. Speaking at the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) 2025 national convention, Romer said:
Power only cedes itself to a greater degree of power. We will win by making conditions so intolerable to the ruling class that they would rather give in to our demands than live with the disturbance we cause until we are able to fully seize power ourselves.
On the face of it, this Marxist gibberish makes no kind of sense at all. After all, the United States of America has no ruling class, neither economic nor political, by design of its Founding principles. America’s first organic law, the Declaration of Independence, The Conscience of the Constitution, declares . . .
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.*
For the first time in recorded history, ordinary people were set free from any ruling class or elite. Bucking the tide of history, they created a Constitution to enforce those principles. America has no all-powerful king, religious cleric, military dictator, oligarchy, majority, or slave master. For the first time, the common individual was liberated from rulers. The new nation’s people instead created a government to serve them. Instead of being a subject of an authoritarian of any kind, the people got what they naturally always had— individual self-rule, which the Founding generation called self-governance. Each person is in charge of his own life, setting his own goals, choosing his own values, pursuing his own happiness, by exercising liberty limited only by the equal rights of others—by unalienable right. The government’s sole responsibility was to secure these rights, holding only those powers justly required to carry out that responsibility. The unique American system was grounded in Natural Rights theory, which held that all persons were born free and equal and have inherent rights to life, liberty, and property that no government or ruler can take away.
So, again, what does Romer mean by “ruling class?” Let’s consider Romer’s use of the term “power.” Seth McLaughlin, writing for The Washington Times, observes:
For Ms. Romer, 43, the movement is about seizing power from corporate and political elites she calls “bosses.”
“We don’t think that’s extreme,” [Co-chair Ashik] Siddique said on C-SPAN this week. “We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class, and to replace capitalism with socialism.” [my emphasis]
But here’s the gimmick: corporate—i.e. economic—power is not the same as political power. Economic power is the power of production and trade, which are voluntary activities freely engaged in by the people exercising their unalienable individual rights. Under the American system of Capitalism, economic power belongs to and is granted by free people. The economic power of the business corporation is derived solely by the consumer’s willingness to buy and use the good it is selling.
Political power is the power of law—that is, of coercion, of the gun—and belongs strictly to the government, and only the government. When that power is strictly limited and reined in by a legitimate Constitution, like the American Constitution, it is a vital and benign power designed strictly for securing the individual’s rights to self-governance, including economic self-governance—which means rights to property and free trade, career choice, freedom of speech, press, conscience, association, reproductive freedom, and the like.
Thus, the DSA’s explicit intention is to replace the economic and political freedom and Constitutionally limited rights-securing government of America (Capitalism) with totalitarian government (Socialism)., a power which the DSA’s members intend to “fully seize for ourselves.”
Note that the Democratic Socialists of America intend not to replace a ruling class but to create a ruling class. If the Democratic Socialists didn’t intend that outcome, why do they seek political power to begin with? There is nothing in America’s free society that prevents them from practicing their socialist values privately and voluntarily, and respecting others’ rights. Why do they want to eliminate the Senate and make the Presidency and Supreme Court subservient to a single branch, the House of Representatives? To eliminate the checks and balances that the Founders instituted to constrain the power of the government and protect individual rights. Why? To transform our Constitutionally limited republic with a government of unlimited democratic power—a Democracy. Hence, the Democratic Socialists of America.
Never mind the “transfer [of] power from the 1% to the working class”: Both have economic power under the American system, but no power to dominate the other. The power of the “1%”—the business class—is to offer a product, service, or job, and the power of the “working class,” is in the choice people make to buy the offered product or service or accept the job. If the 1% is code for corporate power, then remember that corporate power derives from consumers’ willingness to voluntarily buy their products. When you “replace capitalism with socialism,” you eliminate every bit of voluntary economic power from the private sector, which includes the “working class,” and replace it with coercive centralized political control by the state.
Note the sinister gimmick: First they set up a straw man—some mythical “ruling class”—then blank out the distinction between economic and political power, with the purpose of draining the economic power of voluntarism from the American people and vastly expanding the political power of the government for the purpose of enslaving us all under totalitarian Socialism. The U.S Constitution deprives the Socialists of the power they seek, so they seek to neuter or, if possible, repeal the Constitution. The American citizen—the common person—will no longer be sovereign, and will once again become subordinate to some collective goal embodied by the state.
If Socialism replaces Capitalism, it will be the end of rightful liberty in America—a complete counter-Revolution. The DSA seeks to replace America’s individualistic freedom with collectivistic tyranny. That is why I quoted DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer as saying “Our Goal is to Destroy Americans’ Liberty.” That is actually what she intends. Don’t be duped by the altruistic slogans Democratic Socialist “Progressives” hide behind. The goal behind every far Left candidate is what Romer expressed. They mean it.
And that leads me back to my opening proposition. Why have the Democratic Socialists found a home in the Democratic Party? Why have Democratic Party leaders not denounced them? Why, instead, do we so often hear statements of acceptance, such as “we are a big tent party, open to all ideas?” Because totalitarian Socialism is the ultimate end to which their policies are aimed. To vote Democrat is to vote for the most honest wing of the Democratic Party—the strongly anti-individual rights, pro-Socialist Progressive wing, the currently ascendant Democratic Socialists of America.
250 years ago, the Founding of the United States of America set out to free the ordinary person to self-govern his own life. Despite contradictions inherited from history, the basic social compact remains largely intact. That freedom of self-rule is threatened by The Democratic Socialists of America—and by logical extension, the Democratic Party.
* [“Created Equal” has long been logically interpreted to mean born morally free and equal—equally free to self-govern; “men” to be generic for all individuals regardless of race, gender, economic condition, et al; and property to be among the “unalienable Rights.” These interpretations are both logical and correct, as they derive from Enlightenment philosophy. See
Related Reading:
Why I Will Never Vote for a Democrat
Socialism's Totalitarian Nature Cannot Be Obscured by 'Democratic Socialism'
Socialism vs. Welfare Statism: Why These Terms Matter
Criminal Socialism vs. a Free Society
The Dollar and the Gun by Harry Binswanger
The Conscience of the Constitution
On This Constitution Day, Remember the Declaration of Independence
QUORA *: ‘Why do people find communism so terrifying as an idea?’
