Alternate headline: Mike Johnson Looks Like a Genius – Again.
Alternate alternate headline: Dem Leadership Finally Enforces Party Discipline – to Defend Socialism.
For the past few months, Democrat Party leadership has stood by while the Democratic Socialists of America poach incumbent House and Senate seats in primary after primary. They have not lifted a finger to punish other Democrats – such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ro Khanna – who have endorsed DSA’s attempts to seize control of the party. Instead, party leaders like Chuck Schumer claim to have a “big tent” that welcomes a diverse variety of political thought.
When it comes to opposing socialism, however, the tent flaps come down quickly, and the commissars suddenly discover party discipline.
Yesterday, two centrist House Dems stepped in to save Johnson’s effort to pass a non-binding resolution to condemn socialism and demand that the Senate take up the House-passed SAVE America Act. It helped Johnson overcome a revolt from Freedom Caucus members over the CR that passed yesterday, and it apparently disturbed Hakeem Jeffries’ sleep:
Two centrist Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, took the unusual step Tuesday of rescuing GOP leaders’ own agenda in the face of a conservative rebellion.
Those Democrats backed a key GOP procedural vote that needed to succeed for Republicans to later bring several bills to the floor.
The reason? It helped pave the way for a priority bill for Golden supporting lobstermen, according to two people familiar with the discussion. The bill already has White House support, and Golden and others hope it can become law this year.
But their vote also allowed Johnson to proceed with messaging votes that Democrats oppose, including a resolution to condemn socialism that Republicans hope to use against Democrats on the campaign trail.
Golden cut a good deal for his constituents. That’s his job. What did he trade for that legislation, which would have a concrete benefit for his district and state? Passage of a non-binding resolution against socialism as well as an endorsement of a bill the House has already passed, neither of which has any legal effect in the slightest. Johnson got a chance to teach a lesson to his balky caucus about his skill in pursuing the White House’s agenda. That’s a pretty good trade for both men, but for Golden especially.
Suddenly, though, the same Democrat leadership that looked away as its own incumbents helped roll the DSA Trojan Horse into the primaries wants to enforce party discipline. Axios reports that Jeffries wants political blood for this supposed betrayal, while perhaps a few lame-duck incumbents wonder what happened to the “big tent”:
Why it matters: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is taking an uncharacteristically aggressive public approach to the defections, to the thrill of some of his members.
- “I ‘effing love it,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). “We have to draw a bright line here and kick some ass or this will be the new norm.”
- Another House Democrat said Jeffries and his deputies “are right to make an example” of the two rogue centrists.
Gee, what happened to the “big tent”? And a better question: Why did Jeffries et al decide to draw the line in the sand on this non-binding resolution in the first place, rather than on cooperation with the DSA to target incumbent Dems in deep-blue House districts? Not to mention the rush to support the DSA-backed Senate candidates in Maine, Florida, and Michigan, all of whom put Democrats’ ambitions for control of the upper chamber on life support?
Those perfidies barely got a tongue-clucking. Golden’s vote in favor of his own legislation will get referred to the caucus commissars for some, ah … re-education, tovarisch:
A “general conversation about consequences” sprang up among members almost immediately after the vote on Tuesday, a second House Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Axios.
- The lawmaker said that while only “a few people” explicitly raised the idea of punishment, the “sentiment is wider spread.”
- Democratic leadership is “upset that they put all of the front liners in the position to take hard votes. Very upset,” said a third House Democrat.
A hard vote on what, exactly? A repudiation of socialism? A call on the Senate to finally take up a bill the House has already passed? How do either of these represent a “hard vote”? The voter-ID core of the SAVE America Act is wildly popular among all voting demos, including Democrats. Socialism is decidedly not popular; the latest Harvard-Harris CAPS poll puts support for socialism at 25/48, the DSA at 26/43, and communism at 12/67.
This resolution should be a slam-dunk Sista Souljah moment for Democrat leadership. Instead, they’re circling the wagons around the socialists and drumming centrists out of the supposed “big tent.” The obvious conclusion in light of this coming Inquisition on centrists is that the DSA has already seized control of the Democrat Party. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are too craven and weak to stand up for their own incumbents while bullying those who refuse to renounce the socialist cult that has the party’s leaders in its grip.
And all Mike Johnson had to do to make it obvious was to give Golden a carve-out for his constituents on federal fishing restrictions. Johnson may not be House Speaker in the next session of Congress, but he’s playing several levels above Jeffries … and everyone knows it.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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