Today’s Leftists, Envisioning an Overhaul of America, Would Do Better To Emulate the ‘Sewer Socialists’

The Democratic Socialists of America, riding a series of congressional primary wins in New York City, are pushing for radical change. Like the “Sewer Socialists” of a century ago, though, they can expect to face headwinds and would be better off working for smaller victories over a rewrite of the Constitution.Earlier this month, the DSA cobbled together its “Workers Deserve More” platform. Among its proposals are abolishing the Senate, defunding the Department of Defense, and allowing non-citizens to vote.The DSA would “replace the president and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” They’d also usher in “multi-party democracy,” give Washington D.C. statehood, “expand the number of seats in the House,” and replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote.On its website, the DSA says it would also “limit” the Supreme Court’s “power of judicial review which it uses to effectively create and abolish laws outside the legislative process.” Taken as a whole, the moves would change America from a republic to the kind of direct democracy that the Constitution restrains.The Democratic establishment faced the same calls for these revolutionary rewrites at the turn of the last century. In 1910, the founder of the Social Democratic Party of America, Congressman Victor Berger, was elected to represent a Milwaukee district.Two weeks after being seated, Berger introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the “obstructive and useless” Senate. He called the upper chamber “a menace to the liberties of the people and an obstacle to social growth,” dismissing it as a “millionaire’s club.”On April 28, 1911, the Sun quoted Berger’s description of the Senate as “a relic of European feudalism” like Britain’s Lords. The congressman noted that “when the proposition was made to divide the Congress … the great State of New York” was among three states that “recorded their votes against it.”Berger’s amendment would have put bills passed by the House before the country as referendums — no presidential veto or judicial review allowed. However, since Article V of the Constitution says that, without its consent, no state can be deprived of an equal voice in the Senate, the idea was dead on arrival.As often happens when upstart political factions gain momentum, the major parties adopted their most popular issues. Berger’s advocacy led to the 17th Amendment allowing the direct election of senators. The push for abolishment faded.By expanding democracy, the 17th Amendment validated the pragmatic approach of Berger’s socialists who, starting in 1892, governed Milwaukee for about 70 years. When mocked as “Sewer Socialists” for touting municipal successes like the city’s septic system, they embraced the nickname.At the 1912 Socialist Party convention, Berger advocated a “split” between the approach of the “Sewer Socialists” and the “utopianism and fanaticism” of radicals. He accepted that politics was, as the chancellor of Germany, Otto Van Bismark called it, “The art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.”The DSA’s new platform is already splitting Democrats. As this columnist wrote last month in the Sun, Vice President Harris said she’d consider most of these ideas and already backs many of them as she eyes a potential third run for the presidency in 2028.Other Democrats balk at embracing socialism. Wednesday on NewsNation, President Clinton’s former strategist, James Carville, rejected positions held by DSA-backed congressional candidates who, he said, “hate Democrats” and whose agendas have no place in the party.“Start your own movement,” Mr. Carville said to the Democratic Socialists running for Congress in New York. “If it’s such a powerful, sweeping movement that’s got momentum everywhere, then go ahead and be at the head of it. Don’t use the Democratic Party to advance it because we don’t have any interest in it.”

Today’s Leftists, Envisioning an Overhaul of America, Would Do Better To Emulate the ‘Sewer Socialists’

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