DSA revolutionaries aim to topple the Senate and the Constitution, too

Political parties tend to harshly reject the idea that they are a threat to the constitutional order, but the Democratic Socialists of America are making it part of their brand. The DSA has released a new program that, besides contemplating the advent of a classless society, calls for abolishing the US Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court. This is literally a revolutionary program to topple the American system as we have known it since 1789. It’s the kind of thing you might expect after angry rebels mount the barricades in Washington, DC, and overthrow the government.It makes proposals to abolish the filibuster seem trifling in comparison, and even court-packing look relatively moderate. The proposal to kill off the world’s greatest deliberative body has gotten the most attention.The DSA’s co-chair, Gustavo Gordillo, went on Fox News to explain that the Senate is “undemocratic,” while Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has said that she opposes the filibuster and elements of the Senate that “were founded on Jim Crow.”Contra Gordillo, the Senate is a democratic institution; no one wins a Senate seat without getting more votes than his or her opponent. Yet, part of its role in our system is to serve as a check on popular passions.At the institution’s inception, state legislatures appointed senators.Those days are long gone (the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, requires direct election), but six-year terms and staggered elections give the Senate more insulation from the transient currents of public sentiment than the House of Representatives. Then, there are the Senate rules that put an emphasis on consensus and delay.AOC sounded confused when she cited Senate practices created under Jim Crow, the system of formalized racial discrimination that arose about 100 years after the creation of the Senate.It’s true that the filibuster was used as a tool to attempt to block landmark civil-rights legislation, without ultimate success.But the...