The Democratic Socialists of America recently rolled out a policy platform wrapped in delusional promises — free government-run health care, the abolition of the police and prison systems, and the defunding of our military.While those proposals sound crazy enough, something far more radical is buried underneath: a call to abolish the Senate and subordinate the presidency and the Supreme Court to a new unicameral body that would choose and control the executive and judicial branches.That proposal is not just unserious — it is a direct assault on the Constitution.
The attacks on the Supreme Court's legitimacy and the calls to abolish the Senate spring from the same impulse: impatience with constitutional limits on political power.When institutions become obstacles to ideological goals, the answer should never be to tear them down.That dangerous mindset has consequences beyond political rhetoric.
Our Supreme Court justices and their families have been subject to escalating threats in recent years. DSA CO-CHAIR EMBRACES ABOLISHING SENATE, ICE, BORDERS AS DEMOCRATIC INFIGHTING ESCALATESDuring a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, I heard directly from Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan.Both described a security posture that has not kept pace with the threats they now face.
In fact, after the leak of the court’s decision to overturn Roe v.Wade, Justice Barrett came home from work wearing a bulletproof vest given to her by her security detail.
She recounted placing the vest on a table and having to explain to her 12-year-old son what it was and why she had it.No justice should fear for their safety because they faithfully discharge their constitutional duty.Yet instead of treating this as the urgent, nonpartisan security matter it is, we continue to hear rhetoric that attacks the very legitimacy of the court as an institution.
In 2020, Sen.Chuck Schumer said Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch would "pay the price" if they acted to re...