Daniel Ortega, self-proclaimed leader of Nicaragua with his wife, Rosario Murillo, has had enough of fake elections. He’s canceling them, effective immediately. He made the announcement during a rally to commemorate the 1979 Sandinista Revolution that brought him and his party into power for the first time.
“There will never be elections here again,” Ortega said. Members of Ortega’s opposition are largely either in jail or exiled. Of the opposition, he said: “They would love to win elections in order to make money. But they can forget about it.”
Unfortunately, we have Ortega clones winning elections here in the United States, starting with Zorhan Mamdani as mayor of New York City. These people call themselves Democratic Socialists, but that title just masks the truth of their being communists.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), in fact, have introduced a blueprint for governing America. That blueprint calls for abolishing the U.S. Presidency, Senate, and Supreme Court, and having the whatever-they’ll-call-it House of Representatives rule by fiat.
At its core, the DSA platform argues that capitalism is inherently exploitative and incompatible with true freedom, democracy, and equality. [V.I. Lenin is no doubt smiling in his grave.] The organization’s ultimate goal is a transition to a democratic socialist system where key industries, resources, and services are socially owned and democratically managed for the public good.
Key Pillars of the DSA Platform
Economic Democracy & Social Ownership
The platform pushes to de-commodify human needs and reduce the power of corporations and the billionaire class.
- Public Ownership: Advocates transferring key sectors—such as energy, utilities, transportation, banking, and housing—from private, for-profit corporations into public, community, or worker ownership.
- Workplace Democracy: Promotes worker co-operatives, employee stock ownership, and worker self-management.
- Wealth Redistribution: Calls for steep progressive taxation, national wealth taxes, and higher corporate taxes to fund public goods.
Universal Social Goods & De-commodification
The DSA believes that basic survival and welfare should not depend on a person’s income.
- Medicare for All: Demands a single-payer, publicly funded healthcare system covering medical, dental, vision, mental health, and reproductive care, free at the point of service.
- Housing as a Human Right: Advocates for universal rent control, expanding public housing, stopping evictions, and banning corporate landlord monopolies.
- Free Public Education: Supports fully funded K-12 public education, tuition-free public college and trade schools, and total student debt cancellation.
Labor & Workers’ Power
Strengthening unions and empowering rank-and-file workers is central to the DSA’s political strategy.
- Protecting the Right to Organize: Strongly supports legislation like the PRO Act to make organizing unions easier and end “right-to-work” laws.
- Labor Standards: Calls for a living wage, a reduced workweek (such as a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay), and expanded paid family and medical leave.
Climate Justice & A Green New Deal
The DSA frames the climate crisis as a direct result of capitalist exploitation.
- Green New Deal: Advocates for a massive public-sector mobilization to transition to 100% renewable energy.
- Just Transition: Focuses on guaranteeing high-paying, unionized green jobs for displaced fossil fuel workers and prioritizing investment in vulnerable, low-income communities.
Electoral & Institutional Reform
Long-term organizational goals call for deep political restructuring to make government more directly responsive to the majority:
- Reforming or abolishing structural barriers to democratic rule (such as the Senate, the Electoral College, or judicial veto power) to create a single, proportionally representative legislature.
- Expanding voting rights, eliminating dark money in politics, and granting voting rights to non-citizen residents in local elections.
Internationalism & Criminal Justice Reform
- Anti-Imperialism & Foreign Policy: Opposes U.S. military interventions, sanctions, and bloated defense spending. The platform supports global worker solidarity, non-interventionism, and pro-Palestinian initiatives.
- Immigration: Advocates for ending deportations, dismantling agency setups like ICE and CBP, granting paths to citizenship/amnesty for immigrants, and protecting migrant rights.
- Justice Reform: Supports police accountability, decarceration, and shifting public resources away from penal systems toward social services and community support.
