Several Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted with Republicans to adopt a resolution that formally denounces socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The move reflects increasing pressure on Democrats to respond to the successes of DSA-backed candidates in primaries around the country as Republicans…
Page A10From§Eachthe early evening edition — 1 September 2026
House condemns socialism as eight Democrats join Republicans, while five Republicans defect from the same message.
As it ran on the front
Every couple years Congress finds time to hold a vote on a word. Not a budget line, not a program, not a dollar figure — a word. This week it was socialism, and the House passed a resolution condemning it, and eight Democrats climbed on board to help it pass, right as the midterms start breathing down everybody's neck.
Here's the part I want you to sit with: this wasn't the only socialism vote of the season. Back on the House rule, the one setting up how this all gets debated, five Republicans broke ranks and voted the other way. So in the same stretch of days, the party of no-socialism-ever loses five of its own on the procedural vote, and the party that's supposedly soft on the word gains eight defectors going the other direction on the final one. Everybody's borrowing votes from everybody. That's not conviction, that's a poll.…
…(cont) I've tended bar long enough to know what a symbolic vote smells like. It smells like this — no funding attached, no program created or cut, no dollar figure anywhere in it, just a floor vote timed to generate a press release before an election. The eight Democrats who joined aren't voting against a policy; there's no policy in the resolution. They're voting against a word, on the record, so the word can't be used against them in October.
And the five Republicans who broke the other way on the rule — nobody's put out a press release explaining that one loudly, have they. Funny how the defection that helps the caucus story gets the headline, and the defection that complicates it gets buried on page fourteen of the same news cycle.
None of this moves a dollar. It doesn't fund a school, it doesn't lower a bill, it doesn't build anything. It's a word, voted on twice in one stretch, by people counting the exits. Watch what they do with the actual budget this month. That's the vote that costs something. This one's free, which is exactly why everybody could afford to vote for it.
“A resolution with no budget line attached is a press release wearing a roll-call vote. Eight Democrats sign on to it two months before an election, five Republicans bail on the rule that set it up — everybody's just counting which vote plays better in October. Watch the actual spending bill this month; that's the one that costs somebody real money.”
“This is Congress standing on principle, plain and simple, a bipartisan majority rejecting a failed ideology, full stop. The five defections on the rule? That's procedural, that's totally different from the resolution vote, they're unrelated, I don't know why you'd even — okay, they're the same week, but they're different documents.”
The receipts
GOP leaders scheduled the vote after Democratic primary voters embraced a number of democratic socialist candidates.
A handful of Republicans split from their party on Tuesday, voting against a rule to allow a measure condemning socialism and the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America to reach the House floor. Among the Republicans to buck their party on the rule were Reps. Andy Harris (R-MD), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), […]
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.