The Democratic Socialists of America have released an updated platform that calls for a sweeping remake of the political system — including eliminating the U.S. Senate — and, for the first time, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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The platform says the country’s political institutions must be rebuilt from the ground up, arguing it’s time to scrap the Senate, eliminate the Electoral College and replace the presidency with a prime minister‑style executive chosen by Congress — changes the socialists argue would curb concentrated power in Washington and create a more democratic system.
The revised “Workers Deserve More” platform comes as DSA’s membership continues to soar and its candidates secure high‑profile primary victories, rattling the Democratic establishment, which the “comrades” at DSA have deemed asleep at the wheel.
The DSA’s leaders say they’re trying to convert that momentum into a broader influence on national debates and say that any candidate the group endorses must support the platform.
The updated platform opens with warnings about war zones across the Middle East, the spread of detention camps and data centers, rising temperatures and soaring costs of basic goods, arguing that a “billionaire class” is dividing workers and fueling desperation.
It describes a world where “the bosses” are carrying out a plan visible in images of conflict abroad, in the construction of detention facilities at home, and in the rising cost of living.
The party says workers are being pitted against one another and displaced by artificial intelligence, leaving people “desperate and miserable” as capitalism turns toward right‑wing authoritarianism and both major parties serve “the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers.”
The DSA vision also includes a significant expansion of the House.
Michaela Brangan, a DSA member from New Jersey who helped write the platform, told members on a Tuesday conference call that the Senate is “more loyal to itself and their donors than their own constituents,” plus argued that enlarging the House would move the country closer to what she described as a more representative democracy.
“The Senate is an anachronism, and it’s completely idiosyncratic to the United States,” Ms. Brangan said. “This has been around for over 200 years, and it’s not working.”
She said expanding the House would be a step toward “a true democracy.”
Frances Gill, a co‑author from DSA Los Angeles, told members that the organization’s structural proposals may sound dramatic but resonate strongly with people — thus scare both major parties.
“These ideas, like, they sound so radical, but they’re not that radical,” she said. “They’re radical in the sense of being really cool, but actually they resonate with people like crazy.”
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Ms. Gill said frustration with presidential power is widespread and has intensified under the current president.
“Everybody sees that Trump is super evil. I mean, every president since the founding of the country has been super evil, but somehow we have one that is even more evil, and people get that,” she told members.
She added that even “normie Democrats” recognize the dangers she associates with President Trump and argued that the moment lets DSA make the case that “it’s this political system that we’ve created that is concentrating power in the hands of the presidency, and that is a huge problem.”
That argument underpins the platform’s call to replace the presidency and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary selected by, and subordinate to, Congress. DSA leaders frame the shift as a move toward a system that would reduce unilateral decision‑making and prevent future presidents from steering the country into conflicts they view as unnecessary.
Beyond institutional reforms, the platform lays out a broad set of policy goals: wealth taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, canceling student debt, establishing a 32‑hour workweek, blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, Medicare for all, universal childcare and a pledge to position the organization at the forefront of the fight for trans rights.
On foreign policy, it calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. military and economic aid to Israel.
The platform also includes a “feminism for all” plank that calls for queer liberation, an end to gender‑based violence and bans on sex discrimination. It opposes restrictions on abortion, childbirth, gender expression and gender transition.
The document casts DSA’s mission as building a working‑class political force capable of drafting a new constitution and creating what it describes as a democratic socialist republic.
It says some demands may be achievable under the current system, but that “complete victory” will require building a new society from the ground up.
“We push these demands to their furthest extent today, so we can fight for their fullest realization in a socialist future,’’ it says.
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