{"id":103807,"date":"2026-07-23T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=103807"},"modified":"2026-07-22T21:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:58:49","slug":"dsa-trump-doesnt-respect-political-norms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/07\/23\/dsa-trump-doesnt-respect-political-norms\/","title":{"rendered":"DSA: Trump doesn&#8217;t respect political norms. Also DSA: Let&#8217;s abolish the current system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Substack, <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/p\/anchor-theory-why-democrats-sprint?publication_id=484195&#038;post_id=208134795&#038;isFreemail=true&#038;r=2jlrz&#038;triedRedirect=true\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Bray<\/a> attempts to establish what the nascent Democratic Socialists of America actually stand for &mdash; and what they stand against:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSA-positions-on-current-electoral-system-in-the-US.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSA-positions-on-current-electoral-system-in-the-US-480x508.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"508\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-103808\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSA-positions-on-current-electoral-system-in-the-US-480x508.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSA-positions-on-current-electoral-system-in-the-US-142x150.png 142w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSA-positions-on-current-electoral-system-in-the-US.png 598w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Democrats are <em>racing<\/em> left, sprinting faster and faster toward abject authoritarian idiocy. Democratic socialists are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/democratic-socialist-melat-kiros-defeats-longtime-house-incumbent-in-colorado-primary\" target=\"_blank\">defeating old Democrats<\/a> in Congress and governing our big cities <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MattSeedorff\/status\/2079436670928339285\" target=\"_blank\">to death<\/a>, and the DSA <a href=\"https:\/\/program.dsausa.org\/#we-fight-for\" target=\"_blank\">now offers<\/a> an explicitly post-capitalist future in which everything is &#8220;free&#8221;, the one thing that resources can&#8217;t actually ever be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>You have no debt. You don&#8217;t need health insurance. You don&#8217;t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. <strong>Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren&#8217;t for-profit businesses<\/strong>; they are common goods and utilities.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You get as much food, energy, and everything else as you feel that you need, and labor is no longer imposed on anyone. Should work well.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, after years of dire warnings that Evil Trump doesn&#8217;t respect our Constitution, here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/07\/senate-representation-undemocratic-imbalance\/688012\/\" target=\"_blank\">an actual headline<\/a> today from one of the mindless institutions of the Democratic Party&#8217;s narrative-making apparatus:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait-853x347.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"347\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-103809\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait-853x347.png 853w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait-480x195.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait-150x61.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait-768x313.png 768w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Abolishing-the-Senate-might-be-the-DSAs-best-idea-Jonathan-Chait.png 1356w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4648833\/dsa-new-platform-replace-president-supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\">also propose<\/a> the replacement of the Supreme Court, the restructuring of the presidency, and the elimination of the Electoral College, but other than that they&#8217;re really mad that Trump doesn&#8217;t respect our political norms. Trump is very bad, because he&#8217;s tearing down our political system, and also we demand the destruction of our political system.<\/p>\n<p>Why are they moving left, moving left, and then moving left some more? Why doesn&#8217;t <em>anything<\/em> ever hold them in check?<\/p>\n<p>Because there&#8217;s no anchor on the right to hold the left anywhere near the center. There&#8217;s no force in American politics pulling consistently and effectively in the other direction. They&#8217;re unopposed and unanchored, so nothing holds them. Mixing metaphors, it&#8217;s like gravity ceased to exist, so the moon is floating away. Political centering is the product of a <em>contest<\/em>. Bad ideas are punished and rejected through debate. And we increasingly don&#8217;t have that. Here&#8217;s a Republican congressman bragging about getting his measure passed to make home repairs a federally funded giveaway:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepTroyDowning\/status\/2069563682472759357\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-21-56-16-1-Congressman-Troy-Downing-on-X-Flew-back-to-Washington-for-a-busy-week-and-the-House-just-passed-the-21st-Century-ROAD-to-Housing-Act-432x640.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-103810\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-21-56-16-1-Congressman-Troy-Downing-on-X-Flew-back-to-Washington-for-a-busy-week-and-the-House-just-passed-the-21st-Century-ROAD-to-Housing-Act-432x640.png 432w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-21-56-16-1-Congressman-Troy-Downing-on-X-Flew-back-to-Washington-for-a-busy-week-and-the-House-just-passed-the-21st-Century-ROAD-to-Housing-Act-405x600.png 405w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-21-56-16-1-Congressman-Troy-Downing-on-X-Flew-back-to-Washington-for-a-busy-week-and-the-House-just-passed-the-21st-Century-ROAD-to-Housing-Act-101x150.png 101w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-22-at-21-56-16-1-Congressman-Troy-Downing-on-X-Flew-back-to-Washington-for-a-busy-week-and-the-House-just-passed-the-21st-Century-ROAD-to-Housing-Act.png 598w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Democrats think the federal government should just give you whatever you need as a government handout, while Republicans think the federal government should, how can I put this, just give you whatever you need as a government handout. Your bathroom faucet broke? Don&#8217;t worry, that&#8217;s a <em>federal program<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, while Democrats demand the abolition of the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, and private property, prominent Republicans are theatrically angry at &#8230; Donald Trump.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Substack, Chris Bray attempts to establish what the nascent Democratic Socialists of America actually stand for &mdash; and what they stand against: Democrats are racing left, sprinting faster and faster toward abject authoritarian idiocy. Democratic socialists are defeating old Democrats in Congress and governing our big cities to death, and the DSA now offers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,84,28,53,13],"tags":[698,768,1037,553,76,752],"class_list":["post-103807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-government","category-media","category-politics","category-usa","tag-congress","tag-democrat","tag-donaldtrump","tag-senate","tag-socialism","tag-supremecourt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-r0j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103811,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103807\/revisions\/103811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}