In late October, the U.S. House of Representatives took up a resolution declaring that “Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.”
The resolution passed easily, on a vote of 285 to 98. It’s probably not surprising that no Congressional Republican voted against it. But eighty-six Democrats were also among the yes votes.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. A nearly identical resolution passed the House 328 to 86 in 2023, but it was not taken up for consideration in the Senate. Introduced by Representative María Elvira Salazar, Republican of Florida, the 2023 resolution similarly denounced the “horrors of socialism” while also condemning a list of communist dictators, such as Vladimir Lenin and Kim Jong Un.
The newer resolution, which, like its predecessor, is mostly symbolic, passed on November 21, just hours before Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, wowed the heck out of the squatter currently occupying the White House. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” the squatter gushed. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job.” Previously, he had pegged Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to cut federal funding to the city if he was elected.
The recent House resolution, also introduced by Salazar, says, “the United States was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.”
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate. It has yet to be taken up. Said Scott in a statement: “Socialism is a failed ideology—it has destroyed countries, crushed economies, and robbed millions of their basic human rights. . . . Time and time again, socialism has led to . . . misery, poverty, and oppression. It’s despicable to see far-left radicals villainizing capitalism—a system that has helped billions of American[s] achieve their dreams—and try to tear down our country and rebuild it in their woke, radical image through socialist policies.”
The House resolution lists many of the most well-known abuses that have been carried out by “socialist ideologues,” such as Pol Pot in Cambodia and Kim Jong Un in North Korea. But of course it doesn’t mention any of the positive manifestations of socialist thinking that are quite popular among people in the United States, such as Social Security and Medicare and public infrastructure.
Those who have tried to dirty up the word socialism throughout the years want us all to believe that the very concept of it always has and always will lead to decline into brutal dictatorship, whereas capitalism has never hurt anyone.
Any old schlump can go around saying that they are a socialist, like Hitler did. But the proof of who you really are is in the action that you take.