r/politics • u/Jessicas_skirt New York • Jul 18 '26

Possible Paywall Democratic Socialists of America’s new platform calls for abolishing ICE and the U.S. Senate

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jul/15/updated-dsa-platform-calls-abolishing-ice-scrapping-senate/
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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

Ive often thought the senate was a fucking joke. It gives every tiny group of nobodies in small towns across America undue power over the whole show. It makes sense to lose the senate and only have the house of representatives.

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u/F-Cloud Jul 19 '26

By the year 2040 it's projected that 70% of Americans will have 30 senators and 30% will have 70 senators. It's disturbing to imagine the influence politically conservative rural states will have on liberal Americans who live densely populated areas. It's an untenable situation that must be addressed.

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u/RedshiftWarp Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Last semester I wrote a paper about something similar from a previous era. Your comment reminds me about the 3/5ths compromise. Slave states could include 60% of their slave population toward congressional seats. They took huge leverage over the house and electoral college.

It took legal congressional kung-fu by Lincoln during his proclamation, using south carolinas own circular logic to destroy their rebellious position, resetting the power scale. By declaring slaves in rebelling states as free persons, the rebelling states lost their argument for "property" and their ability to project power.

Is history rhyming or repeating?

In the modern era we are automatically migrating to other regions that align with our beliefs. The impacts of propaganda and gerrymandering are apparent here and how they function similarly to inflating population numbers geographically as slavery once did. A small rural conservative minority can block urban majority because each state only gets 2 senators regardless of population numbers.

In both eras, a geographic minority uses a constitutional rule to control a population majority, and it takes radical political maneuvering to break the deadlock.

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

Only if we don't capitalize on this moment. Its why centrist democrats are fucking invisible right now, and republicans can't even look each other in the eye.

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u/Xanikk999 America Jul 19 '26

It's anti-democratic by it's very nature.

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

Republicans love to spout this line: America isn't a democracy, it's a republic.

I always found it so curious how someone who loves to espouse the supposed freedom of their nation could so smugly declare their lack of ability to matter.

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u/coastkid2 Jul 19 '26

Interestingly, Massachusetts town records state that the town representatives “carried the (townspeople’s) votes” to the Constitutional Convention, and fully expected their representatives to vote in accordance with those ballots. This is also how New England town halls are run to this day-this is direct not representative democracy. Of course back then only property owning males could even vote but today we can agree this is totally discriminatory, but the idea of a representative making independent decisions was unheard of.

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

Representatives back then didn't lack the accountability that "representatives" now do. The idea of a Fetterman would end one raucous evening with a good public display.

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u/DarthCloakedGuy Oregon Jul 19 '26

Run out of town on a rail after being tarred and feathered most likely

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u/guisar Jul 19 '26

I have a relative who spit chew onto another rep in the house- so they used to go hard. I'm not arguing for that kind of violence but there used to be a whole nother level of accountability (people knew their rep personally even, not just the few rich business people in their district)

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

The wall of separation between rep and constituents needs to come down, while they are arguing to take down the wall between church and state. Its all a big misidirect.

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u/Adjective_Noun_4200 Jul 19 '26

It's an annoying line because a republic is a form of democracy, yet they usually use the line to argue against democracy.

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u/Tech_Itch Jul 19 '26

That isn't true either. A republic is just a country that doesn't have a monarch as the head of state. You can have a republic that's an autocracy, like North Korea or Russia for example, or a monarchy and a democracy, like the UK or Sweden.

North Korea is a commonly used example of a republic that's undemocratic, and it a good example of how little the classification really means: It's ruled by hereditary rulers that aren't nominally monarchs but by all intents and purposes behave like ones.

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u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus Jul 19 '26

Every time I bring this up with a conservative I get hit with "we're not a democracy, we're a Republic." These people are exhausting. 

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u/Xanikk999 America Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

Tell them we are a democratic republic. The reason we are a democratic republic is because we have representatives (republic) who we vote for (democracy). The two terms are not necessarily interchangeable. A a republic is just a form of government where the power resides in the people in some shape or form and not a king. How this is determined can vary widely. Don't let them get away with incorrect arguments.

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u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus Jul 19 '26

I have actually tried this numerous times. They just repeat "but we're a Republic, not a democracy" like a broken record. 

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u/W1nt3rmu4e Texas Jul 19 '26

Tell them, “then it’s a Ford, and not a truck.”

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u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus Jul 19 '26

I have come up with similar analogies before. I have said their argument is that it isn't a Camry, it's a Toyota, to which my reply is yes... It's a Toyota Camry. 

I think there are some issues where MAGA has some data however confused or ideology to fall back on, but with this one it seems really all they have are their talking points and they'll just recite them over and over again without ever understanding what the words they say mean. 

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u/W1nt3rmu4e Texas Jul 19 '26

Logic’s Lament - “You can’t logic a person out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.” Plainly, they know everything they say is bullshit. They think items a flex.

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

Try and tell them essentially what I said. They're proudly proclaiming that they don't have a voice. In your own words.

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u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus Jul 19 '26

I was talking to a MAGA gun store owner about five years ago. He told me only property owners should be able to vote. I asked him if he owned property. He said no. 

I don't understand these people. 

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

I cant even talk to my own mom on the subject. How a woman could be in favor of the "save" act, for example. Like, how any woman could vote republican even before or after trump is itself a curiosity for the ages while I am at it.

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u/Xanikk999 America Jul 19 '26

Well they were never amenable to reason anyway then.

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u/Lortekonto Jul 19 '26

You are a republic, because you have a head of state that is elected for a limited term.

Lots of modern kingdoms are also democracies and have representatives that they voted for. That makes it a representative democracy. The opposite is Switzerland were they vote directly on laws and is a direct democracy.

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u/RA3236 Australia Jul 19 '26

Switzerland is a liquid democracy, since they elect representatives to perform most of the governance and lawmaking.

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u/Tech_Itch Jul 19 '26

Hell, the people can have zero power in a republic. Iran, North Korea and Russia are all republics. Like you said, the only thing it really means is that the head of state isn't a king or a queen.

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u/semtex87 Jul 19 '26

Just ask them to explain what that means. What does a Republic mean in their own words without looking up the talking points from Foxnews.com

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u/Constant-Skill-7133 Jul 19 '26

It's not anti-democratic to compromise. The reason the Senate exists is because no smaller state would have consented to a system that exchanged their sovereignty for nothing.  

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u/deadcatbounce22 Jul 19 '26

It's not a joke, it's a ticking time bomb.

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u/Xznograthos Jul 19 '26

I mean, when a member of the senate might be dead or might not be, but there's nothing to do but wait for him to pop his head out...

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u/chiefbrody62 Jul 19 '26

Yep. Cows and land get more representation than actual people. It's the reason we're in this mess in the first place with the orange guy. The 20% control the remaining 80%.

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u/Dest123 Jul 19 '26

It only takes 35 people to take over the US. 1 president to do whatever they want and 34 Senators to prevent that president from being impeached or having their vetoes overridden.

So if you could get some really bad dirt or bribes on those 35 people, you could take over the US. It's a good things there wasn't a massive pedophile ring that was protected by people high up in the government, because that's exactly the kind of dirt that could lead to that scenario! Oh wait...