The Democratic Socialists of America appear to have taken over the US Democrat party in recent years. Or have they actually been there all along?

When People tell you who they are and what they want to do, you should listen to them.

Following are the major platform points of the Democratic Socialists of America. These ideas are not new to US Democrats. Along with every platform point, the first time an Elected Democrat presented them.

1. Pack the Supreme Court / increase the number of justices

February 5, 1937 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D).
FDR sent Congress the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. It would have let him appoint one extra justice for every sitting justice over age 70, up to six new seats (Court of as many as 15).

2. Abolish the Senate

• April 27, 1911: Rep. Victor Berger (Socialist Party of America, Wisconsin) introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate and make the House the sole legislature. He was not a Democrat.
• Francesca Hong (D), Wisconsin State Assembly, February 13, 2021: “Abolish the Senate.” (U.S. Senate).

3. Abolish the Presidency

• 1860: Rep. John William Noell (Missouri) proposed replacing the president with a three-person executive council.
• 1878: Milton I. Southard (D-OH), 1878. Three-person executive council, one each for West, South, and East/Middle.

4. Abolish the Supreme Court

• Andrew Jackson (D), 1832, reported after the Cherokee cases: “We shall never be a free people… until the Supreme Court is abolished. It is a greater tyrant than the inquisition. And sir, if I am re-elected, I will put it down—or it shall put me down.”
• “Abolish the Supreme Court” language appears in 2022 polls of Democratic voters

5. Healthcare for all / healthcare is a human right

January 11, 1944 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D), State of the Union.
FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights” listed “the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”

November 19, 1945 — President Harry Truman (D) message to Congress calling for a national health program.

6. Housing for all / housing is a human right

January 11, 1944 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D), State of the Union.FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights” listed “the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”
November 19, 1945 — President Harry Truman (D) “The right of every family to a decent home.” The Housing Act of 1949

7. Enact reparations

• 1898: Rep. Jeremiah D. Botkin (D-Kansas) introduced a bill for 40 acres and cash payments to formerly enslaved people. It failed.
• January 1989: Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. He reintroduced it every Congress until he left office; it remains the main vehicle.

8. Demilitarize police

2014 — Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) after Ferguson: she said St. Louis County should “demilitarize the police response.”

9. Defund police

May–June 2020. Members of “the Squad” (Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and some city-level Democrats supported shifting funds from police budgets to social services.

10. Abolish police

• 2020 — Francesca Hong (D): “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.” “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish.”
• 2021 — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI): “No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.”

11. Defund the Department of War /Defense and/or The Pentagon/

The Department of War became the Department of Defense in 1947; “Department of War” is mostly recent rhetorical usage.

• 2020 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont, caucuses with Democrats): published “Defund the Pentagon: The Liberal Case” and offered an amendment with Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) to cut the military budget 10 percent and redirect the money.
• 2020 — Cori Bush (D): tweeted about funding social services “after we defund the Pentagon.”

12. Abolish ICE

*Remember: ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Without Customs enforcement, we will quickly be overrun with cheap (and dangerous) counterfeit goods, drugs and people shipped in cargo containers (probably arriving dead).

• June 25, 2018 — Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) announced he would introduce a bill to abolish ICE.
• June 26, 2018 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her primary; campaign platform: abolish ICE.
• June 27, 2018 — AOC on CNN restated she wanted ICE abolished.
• June 28, 2018 — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on CNN: ICE “has become a deportation force”; “get rid of it, start over, reimagine it.”
• June 29, 2018 — Gillibrand on Facebook: “We need to abolish ICE.” Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC): “We should abolish ICE.”
• July 12, 2018 — Pocan, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) introduced the Establishing a Humane Immigration Enforcement System Act, to terminate ICE within one year.
  

13. Voting rights for all (including non-citizens / “aliens”)

June 9, 2021 — Washington DC City Council enacts “Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act”, allowing non-citizens 18+ with 30 days’ D.C. residency to vote in local elections.

14. Abolish the Electoral College

September 18, 1969 — Judiciary Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-NY) Sponsored H.J. Res. 681, passed 338–70. It would have replaced the Electoral College with a national popular vote plus a 40-percent runoff. It died in the Senate.

Later Democratic bills (Steve Cohen, Barbara Boxer, Bill Nelson, etc.) followed the 2000 and 2016.

15. Public ownership of energy and/or large corporations

• 1932–1933 — Franklin D. Roosevelt (D): Attacked private utilities and pledged the federal government would keep control of power resources.
• May 2008 — Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA): “This liberal will be all about socializ— … would be about basically taking over, and the government running all of your companies.”
• June 2008 — Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY): “Should the people of the United States own refineries? Maybe so. Frankly, I think that’s a good idea.”
• Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), June 2008: “Should the people of the United States own refineries? Maybe so. Frankly, I think that’s a good idea.”
• 1973-1976 Bernie Sanders (Liberty Union Party, before he was in Congress): Openly called for nationalization of energy companies, banks, telephone and electric utilities, drug companies, and “the major means of production” / factories, plus worker control. 1973 letter: the oil and energy industry “should be owned by the public.” 1976 brochure: “major industries in this state and nation should be publicly owned and controlled by the workers themselves.”
• June 2026 — Bernie Sanders (I – caucuses with Dems): Bill to take public ownership of half the stock of the largest AI companies via a one-time 50% stock tax into a sovereign wealth fund (~$7 trillion by his estimate), with a public commission using the voting shares to block or push corporate decisions. That is explicit public ownership of a slice of large private corporations, not just regulation or a golden share.

Gavin Newsom (D) floated a “public equity fund” giving the public shares in the largest AI companies.

2021–22 — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (D): tried to put government equity stakes into CHIPS Act semiconductor firms.

Feb, 2019 — Alicia Ocasio Cortez (D): backs government equity stakes in companies central to a green transition.