A Mike Johnson power move can neuter the DSA and make Democrats pick a side

Both the Democratic Party establishment and the GOP have been flat-footed in their responses to the Democratic Socialists of America and their “Summer of Love.” The Democrats, led by invertebrate castratos like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have mostly ducked when asked about the DSA’s plans to destroy the US Constitution, nationalize 90% of the economy and decapitate our mechanisms of law and order.They’ve taken cover behind the empty “Big Tent” lie as radical DSA members and allies, like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Colorado’s Melat Kiros, triumph in Democratic primaries. The GOP, for its part, has been mostly content with name-calling — likening DSAers to such historical villains as Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong — rather than countering them with a clear contrasting set of policy ideas.House Speaker Mike Johnson has a chance to help both Republicans and moderate Democrats get to a more productive place: When his members return from summer recess on Monday, Johnson can bring to the House floor a privileged Resolution of Disapproval of the socialists’ nihilistic platform and rampant bigotry.     That would serve an opening for 100 or so moderate House Democrats to declare emancipation from their party’s lobotomized groupthink politburo — the same one that told us then-President Joe Biden was fit for a second term.  The Democratic brand is already toxic, underwater by 25 percentage points in the latest CNN poll. Moderates like New Jersey’s Reps.

Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Tom Suozzi (Long Island) and Jared Moskowitz (Fla.) — all members of the self-proclaimed pragmatic New Democrat Coalition caucus — presumably don’t want party leaders marching them off the cliff to a Marxist siren song. By forcing an up-or-down vote, Johnson gives them a clear chance at a break they quietly want.But the resolution would also help the speaker, in two ways. First, the floor debate would give Jo...