Congressional votes expose rift in Democratic Party

On Sept. 1 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning socialism and calling for the passage of #47’s voter suppression “SAVE America Act.” They passed the nonbinding resolution with a 220 to 192 vote — with eight Democratic Party Congress members supporting the resolution and two abstaining.

While the majority of Democratic Congress members opposed the measure, the vote further exposed the growing rift in the Democratic Party between centrist and right-leaning members, who frequently side with their Republican “opponents” to support a pro-capitalist agenda, and a growing number of progressives. Progressives include elected officials associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who have scored several recent primary wins.

This rift is not developing in a vacuum. Support for candidates who call for workers’ rights and unions, expanding access to healthcare and abolishing violent federal agencies, especially Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is evident and growing.

But the anti-socialism resolution was not a one-off. On Sept. 3, the House of Representatives passed a bill to penalize U.S. universities for boycotting Israel or its academic institutions, including those located in the occupied West Bank. Thirty-three Democrats joined the Republican majority in supporting this bill, which still needs to be adopted by the Senate and signed by #47 to become law. It would bar universities that boycott “an entity licensed or regulated or organized under the laws of” Israel from receiving federal funds.

Growing youth support for socialism

The Sept. 1 Red Scare vote did not take place in a vacuum. A mid-2026 CNBC Generation Lab poll found that roughly 50% of 18-to-34-year-old voters view socialism positively. And while workers’ rights and the economic crisis drove much of the vote for progressive candidates, especially among these young voters, their support for Palestine and opposition to Israel was an important factor.

The global capitalist system is in crisis — driven not just by falling wages and the rising cost of living but by the devastating consequences of the financialization of the world capitalist economy that amounts to hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt. The bourgeois Democratic Party, like their counterparts in the bourgeois Republican Party, have no solution to this crisis.

As Larry Holmes, Workers World Party’s First Secretary, recently noted in his commentary titled “A perfect storm is coming – World capitalist economic crisis today”: “Everything that is tied to the capitalist financial system — government debt, private debt, workers’ pensions and savings — is either part of this bubble or doomed to be destroyed by it. This is the biggest bubble in the entire history of capitalism. This bubble is about to burst and crash the global capitalist financial system. It’s not only U.S. imperialism that is at the cliff’s edge. U.S. capitalism is the beating heart of world capitalism, and as it goes, so does the whole system. …

“The election of social democrats is a promising sign of what’s coming. There are already promising signs that the radicalization of the working class is well underway. As the storm rages, the radicalization of the working class will engender mass organization and the development of militant, widespread class struggle against capitalism.” (workers.org/2026/09/94553/)

Holmes further notes: “Young workers of every nationality and gender are rebelling against capitalism and increasingly against U.S. imperialism. These workers are not merely voting out of fear of Trump; they are voting against the capitalist system. …

“It should come as no surprise that the bourgeoisie is trying to foment a Red Scare.”

#47’s voter repression targets disenfranchised young workers who oppose the system the most. Revolutionaries should be prepared to respond to even more violent, fascist attacks on these young progressives.

While Workers World soundly condemns the House red-baiting resolution’s particular targeting of DSA, we differ, as Holmes notes, with the DSA leaders’ belief “that the Democratic Party can be pushed to the left and that the capitalist system can be reformed. The system can’t be reformed, and most likely the ruling-class forces who own the Democratic Party will either absorb or tame the social democrats or throw out those who resist absorption.”

With their overall goal of protecting the capitalist system, U.S. imperialism and their pro-Zionist ally, the Democratic Party — even with more progressive leaders — cannot be relied on as a vehicle for change. A truly revolutionary movement, with a strong, independent, anti-imperialist and working-class leadership is needed today more than ever.