DSA Leader VOWS To SHUTDOWN Federal Prisons

The nation’s largest socialist group has moved from hinting at revolution to writing it down, line by line.

Story Snapshot

The Democratic Socialists of America platform openly calls to abolish the Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court.
The group also backs a long-term goal of abolishing prisons and what it calls the “carceral state.”
Leaders say this would create “real democracy,” with Congress holding power over courts and the executive branch.
Conservatives warn the agenda would shred the Constitution and basic checks and balances.

DSA Puts Government Overhaul In Writing

The Democratic Socialists of America program now spells out a full redesign of American government, starting with the Senate. Their published platform calls to abolish the Senate, expand the House of Representatives, and switch to proportional representation with ranked choice voting in all elections. It goes further and says the country needs “a new political system” in which the Electoral College is abolished and the President and Supreme Court are replaced by an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress. This is not a rumor; it is written in their own program.

The vision mirrors a parliamentary system, but pushed through the lens of socialist politics. A detailed platform document lays out a second constitutional convention, a unicameral national legislature, and the formal end of “minority rule” by wiping out the Senate and the Electoral College. Instead of a separate judicial branch with lifetime appointments, they seek term limits, extra seats, and a much closer tie between judges and current political majorities. In plain terms, the group wants Congress to sit at the top of the power pyramid, with other branches downgraded or dissolved.

Prison Abolition And The “Carceral State”

The same program does not stop at election rules; it goes straight at policing and prisons. The Democratic Socialists of America call to “fully abolish the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor,” with steps like demilitarizing departments, cutting police funding, and redirecting money to social services. A longer platform text sets out “decarceration and eventual abolition of the carceral state,” including freeing all people from involuntary confinement, stopping prison expansion, closing local jails, and ending pre-trial detention and imprisonment for parole violations. It is a true abolitionist roadmap, not just a plea for reform.

Leaders frame this as justice for communities they say are targeted by current law enforcement. They call for ending disenfranchisement based on criminal conviction, banning questions about past criminal history on job applications, and blocking use of old records to deny housing, loans, jobs, or voting. To many Americans, these steps sound like erasing consequences for crime. To Democratic Socialists of America activists, they are a way to undo what they see as mass punishment built on racism and class bias. The gap between those views is where the political fight will land.

Platform Confirmed On National Television

Claims about this platform are not based only on hostile readings; the group’s own national co-chair has confirmed them on air. In a Fox News interview, Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer answered “True” when asked if the platform includes abolishing the Senate. She answered “Yep” when asked about replacing the presidency and Supreme Court “as we now know them,” and again when asked about abolishing prisons. Romer also backed abolishing borders, defunding the Pentagon, and getting rid of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while granting amnesty to people living in the country illegally. These were simple yes-or-no questions, and she did not dodge.

Romer did say that ending borders and prisons are long-term goals, not overnight changes. That distinction matters, but it does not change the destination they have drawn. The message from leadership is that these ideas are not fringe within the organization; they are central. For conservatives who still thought “abolish the Senate” was just campus sloganeering, hearing a national co-chair embrace it on cable news has been a wake-up call about how far this agenda now reaches into mainstream political conversation.

Why Conservatives See A Direct Threat To The Constitution

Conservative outlets and leaders have seized on the platform as proof that Democratic Socialists of America politics collide with basic American structure. Coverage has highlighted language calling for a unicameral, proportional legislature, abolishing the Senate, and a parliamentary system that abolishes the presidency as a separate office. The same reporting notes the plan to replace the president and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary elected by and subordinate to Congress, and to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement while granting sweeping amnesty. To anyone who values checks and balances, that looks like a direct assault on the Constitution.

From a common-sense, conservative view, the danger is clear. A single dominant legislature, packed through proportional party lists, would control judges and the executive branch, with no Senate to slow bad ideas or defend smaller states. Abolishing prisons and gutting police would remove the basic tools society uses to punish violence and protect the innocent. That combination would not create “real democracy”; it would create soft chaos on the streets and hard one-party rule in Washington. The platform lays out that path openly, which at least makes the stakes obvious for voters who still care about ordered liberty and the founding design.