Dem Socialists Co-Chair Sparks Bipartisan Alarm

Original article here

A Democratic Socialists of America leader has laid bare the organization’s true governing vision on live television, and the admission is rattling official Washington from both directions.

Fox News anchor Shannon Bream extracted a remarkable string of confirmations from DSA co-chair Megan Romer during a recent sit-down interview that has since exploded across social media, racking up millions of views on X in a matter of days.

Point by point, Romer validated an agenda most Americans would never associate with a mainstream political movement: dismantling the Senate, dissolving ICE, opening the nation’s borders, and handing amnesty to those living in the country illegally.

She didn’t stop there. Romer also confirmed the group’s support for defunding the Pentagon, shuttering prisons, and shifting ownership of the country’s largest corporations into public hands.

Only two caveats emerged from the exchange—Romer characterized the elimination of borders and the abolition of prisons as long-range ambitions rather than immediate priorities.

New York offers the clearest example. Claire Valdez captured an open seat once held by Rep. Nydia Velázquez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier knocked off incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in a primary upset.

Philadelphia delivered a similar result, with Chris Rabb winning his primary race, while Colorado voters chose Melat Kiros over longtime Rep. Diana DeGette.

Each of these candidates now stands positioned to win comfortably in November, thanks to the deep-blue lean of their districts—meaning the two current DSA-aligned House members, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, could soon have company.

Momentum for the movement has been building elsewhere too. Zohran Mamdani’s ascent to the New York City mayor’s office, running openly as a Democratic socialist, has pushed the group further into the national spotlight.

Reaction from within the Democratic Party itself has been anything but supportive.

Annie Andrews, campaigning for a Senate seat in South Carolina, didn’t mince words: “I can’t understand how anyone claiming to fight for working people could hold and promote such ludicrous beliefs. These ideas don’t reflect American values, and they certainly don’t represent South Carolina. If this is what the DSA stands for, it’s completely un-American and unhinged.”

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania delivered an equally sharp rebuke: “This isn’t a big tent—it’s anarchy. Why can’t Dems call out the DSA?”

Longtime gun-control activist Shannon Watts framed the platform as a liability at the ballot box, warning that “the people we need most to vote with our party, including moderates and independents, will look at this list and think ‘WTF’.”

Former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan went further, urging fellow Democrats to publicly reject the group before it drags the party down entirely.

“No borders so terrorist can just walk into the US? Amnesty for them? No military at all? Some national Dem please stand up to this insanity before it’s too late,” Ryan said.

Republican officials, unsurprisingly, offered no softer take. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reduced his reaction to four words: “These people are insane.” Florida Sen. Ashley Moody accused Democratic socialists of being “hell-bent on destroying America.”

Facing the backlash, the DSA released a statement defending its long-term goals while turning its criticism back on the Democratic establishment.

The organization described its mission as “an ambitious, long-term project with a vision for a future in which people’s material needs are met, crime is reduced because people and have good-paying jobs, and families can easily afford their rent,” adding that “in a democratic socialist future, we fund childcare and healthcare, not genocide and war.”

The statement insisted that Democratic candidates generally “are not running on a DSA platform,” before shifting blame for any future election losses onto a party it accused of serving “billionaires and corporations.” The group asked pointedly whether Democrats would “finally become a party that fights for working Americans instead of billionaires, AIPAC, and defense contractors.”

The full DSA platform, finalized earlier this year, extends well beyond what surfaced in the interview. It calls for a 32-hour workweek at full pay, government-run universal health care, and publicly owned housing.

Additional planks include ending mass incarceration, a policy framework the group calls “feminism for all,” and a Green New Deal that would place energy and transportation systems under collective control.

Foreign policy provisions are equally sweeping: the platform calls for defunding the Department of Defense entirely, cutting off all military and economic aid to Israel, and pursuing prosecution of American and Israeli officials over the war in Gaza.

On matters of governance, the platform seeks D.C. statehood, elimination of the Electoral College, ranked-choice voting, and proportional representation—alongside a provision replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary “chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”

The document closes by calling for public ownership of the nation’s largest corporations and its essential industries.