DSA Leader VOWS to Abolish Prisons

The main socialist group on the American left has now put in writing a plan to tear out the core institutions of our government and replace them with something very different.

Story Snapshot

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) adopted a platform that calls for abolishing the Senate, presidency, Supreme Court, and the Electoral College.
The same program backs “abolishing the police and prison system” and dismantling what it calls the “carceral state.”
DSA leaders say these ideas would make the country “more democratic,” while critics warn they would destroy checks and balances.
The plan includes drafting a new socialist constitution and putting most major powers directly under a single, dominant Congress.

DSA’s Platform Moves From Fringe Slogan To Written Blueprint

The Democratic Socialists of America has moved radical ideas from protest signs into a detailed political program. Their official platform, “Workers Deserve More,” now states the organization wants to abolish the United States Senate entirely and end the Electoral College that chooses presidents. The same document says the country’s political institutions should be rebuilt “from the ground up” with a new constitutional structure centered on one national legislature. This is not an offhand remark at a rally; it is written, adopted, and defended as the group’s plan.

National co-chair Megan Romer recently went on national television and answered “true” when asked if DSA’s platform calls for abolishing the Senate, replacing the presidency and Supreme Court, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, abolishing borders, abolishing prisons, and defunding the Pentagon. She did not walk it back or call it symbolic. She presented these positions as necessary steps to fight inequality and what DSA calls “minority rule.” That alone tells us the group sees institutional demolition as central, not optional, to its mission.

A New Constitutional Order With Congress On Top

At the heart of the platform is a demand for a “new socialist democracy” crafted through a second constitutional convention. Under this vision, the United States Senate disappears and Congress becomes a single chamber chosen with proportional voting rules. The presidency, as Americans know it, would be replaced by a prime minister-style executive chosen by and answerable to that same Congress. The Supreme Court would also be replaced with a judiciary selected by, and subordinate to, Congress, with its power of judicial review sharply limited. In plain terms, nearly all federal power would flow through one elected body.

Supporters inside DSA argue this structure would end “minority rule” by small states and unelected judges and make national decisions more responsive to population centers. They claim it is undemocratic for Wyoming and California to share equal Senate seats, or for a handful of justices to strike down laws backed by majorities. Critics, including many right-of-center writers, respond that this would destroy the separation of powers and checks and balances that protect individual liberty from an overbearing government. From a conservative, common-sense view, putting the legislature, the executive, and the courts under one partisan roof looks less democratic and more like one-party rule.

Prison Abolition And The End Of The “Carceral State”

Institutional change in the DSA program does not stop at Washington, D.C. The platform calls for “decaceration and eventual abolition of the carceral state,” which for them includes prisons, police, and many forms of confinement. A detailed abolition section demands freeing “all people from involuntary confinement,” ending pre-trial detention, ending imprisonment for parole violations, and stopping all funding for prison expansion or new jail buildings. It also backs ending most misdemeanor offenses, defunding prosecutors’ offices, and removing police from schools, hospitals, and other public spaces. Romer confirmed on air that DSA supports abolishing prisons “at least in large part” over time.

DSA leaders frame this as a moral response to racial disparities and mass incarceration. They argue the prison system “protects the rich and jails the poor” and that real safety comes from social programs, not armed law enforcement. Critics point out the obvious risk: violent offenders would return to communities, and police would lose the tools needed to protect ordinary people. From a conservative standpoint grounded in ordered liberty, a state that refuses to punish crime or detain dangerous people stops defending victims and starts favoring offenders.

How A Small Movement Forces A Big Debate

Democratic Socialists of America is not a major party, but its platform has outsized impact because elected Democrats and media outlets keep giving it oxygen. Star progressives like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are members or allies and now face questions about whether they support abolishing the Senate and other institutions. Some try to blur the edges, calling these ideas “aspirational,” while DSA officials insist they are serious, long-term goals. That tension creates a real test: do mainstream Democrats reject the agenda, or quietly let it shape their own reforms?

For Americans who value the Constitution’s checks and balances, this platform reads less like reform and more like regime change. The plan replaces divided government with a single, dominant legislature, weakens courts just when they are most needed, and strips police and prisons just as crime and disorder test vulnerable communities. There is room for debate on sentencing, policing, and democratic representation. But the DSA blueprint goes far beyond debate. It asks the country to bet its safety and freedom on concentrated political power and a promise that the people holding it will never abuse it.