I wish I were making this up: Eighty-six Democrats voted for a Republican-contrived House resolution on Friday decrying “the horrors of socialism.”
The horrors of socialism? Do you mean like Social Security, Medicare, the interstate highway system, and air-traffic control? The digging of the Erie Canal? The free museums that are part of the government’s Smithsonian Institution? Or did they get their panties in wad over land-grant colleges, public libraries, and city fire departments?
The sponsor, María Elvira Salazar, the Republican assistant whip for the House, had the vote on the same day that New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani was meeting with President Trump at the White House. The vote was clearly aimed at embarrassing Mamdani and splitting the Democratic House caucus. So of course, the worst Democrats took the bait.
Eric Michael Garcia, the Washington bureau chief at the United Kingdom’s The Independent and an MSNBC regular, did God’s own work and compiled a list of these losers, which you can see here on Bluesky. Incidentally, Congressman Morgan McGarvey did not embarrass himself and is not on the list.
But you know who is? House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries! And Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. And Democratic House Whip Katherine Clark. And, sad to say, a favorite of mine, House Democratic Vice Chair Ted Lieu. The only member of Democratic House leadership not on the loser list is Suzan DelBene, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Bunches of committee ranking members also appear on the List of Shame, among them Angie Craig of Agriculture, Brendan Boyle of Budget, and Bennie Johnson of Homeland Security. (A “ranking member” is the most senior member of the minority party on a particular committee, the person most likely to become chair once the Democrats kick the bums out. So a pretty powerful Democrat.) Sadly, leadership in lockstep indicates this was clearly an organized Democratic tactic (a.k.a., stupidity on purpose).
And that brings us to the reason this non-binding resolution is a bigger deal than it seems. When you have the House Democratic leadership openly saying that Americans having what the citizens every other industrialized country in the world take for granted (universal health care; affordable housing, child care, and colleges; living wages; universal pre-kindergarten) is “a horror,” then we need new leadership.
Because with friends like these, Americans don’t need Republicans to make their lives worse and protect the 1% at all costs. These corporate Democrats are happy to take on the task.
--30--
Comments
