For the third time in four years, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has voted to condemn socialism “in all its forms,” in a resolution which combines wild anti-communist slanders with rejection of even the most modest social-democratic reforms.
The resolution, if anything, will only encourage more workers and young people to turn their attention to the fundamental question of socialism vs. capitalism. They will think, if Donald Trump and the fascist Republicans are against socialism, then socialism is worth looking into. And they will be right.
Unlike the February 2023 and November 2025 anti-socialist resolutions, the version passed on September 1, 2026 is specifically focused on the Democratic Socialists of America, referring to both the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City in November 2025, and to the subsequent influx of DSA-backed candidates “in over one hundred elections in at least half the states.”
The resolution declares that “the DSA’s ideology and socialism, in any form, are incompatible with American values and the United States Constitution.” Among its supposed sins are that the DSA calls for “replacing the two-party system.” Actually, the DSA is a faction of the capitalist Democratic Party, and it represents neither socialism nor a genuine challenge to the corporate-controlled two-party system.
But the fear, even hysteria, sweeping the Republican Party—and the capitalist political establishment as a whole—are not prompted by the DSA itself. They are concerned that the electoral victories of the DSA over the past year are a signal of a broader shift to the left by the working class and particularly working class youth that will pose a revolutionary threat to the survival of American capitalism.
Also unlike the two previous resolutions, the latest version of an anti-socialism pledge makes no effort to win Democratic Party support. Instead, it backs President Trump’s campaign to attack voting rights, including his efforts to virtually eliminate mail-in ballots, and concludes by calling for passage of Trump’s SAVE America Act, which has been blocked in the Senate.
That language explains why there was comparatively little support for the resolution among House Democrats. In February 2023, majorities in both parties backed the anti-socialism resolution: a unanimous 219-0 among Republicans, and 109-86 among Democrats, yielding a final overwhelming vote of 328-86. The resolution in November 2025, passed after Mamdani’s election victory, also had majority Democratic support.
The resolution enacted Tuesday passed only narrowly, 220-192. Again, Republicans backed it unanimously, 212-0, but Democrats opposed it 192-8. The eight Democrats who voted for a resolution praising Trump and condemning their own party by name were all on the right-wing of the party: Kathy Castor and Darren Soto of Florida; Henry Cuellar and Vincente Gonzalez of Texas; Jared Golden of Maine; Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Oregon; and Donald Davis of North Carolina.
In 2023, the WSWS commented on the passage of the resolution, noting:
By dedicating a substantial portion of its legislative agenda to a condemnation of socialism, the US Congress expresses the fear within the ruling class that a powerful socialist movement will take root in the working class and orient the emerging wave of strikes and social struggles in a revolutionary direction.
The 2026 version has a more immediate electoral purpose, since it foreshadows the strident red-baiting campaign that the Trump White House, the Republican Party and numerous fascist billionaires like Elon Musk are launching in the final stages of the campaign for the midterm elections, now only two months away.
The praise of Trump and the SAVE America Act were deliberately included to ensure that most Democrats would vote against the resolution, a vote that will provide fodder for campaign commercials branding the Democratic Party, dominated by Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, as effectively a communist front.
The bankrupt character of this effort is demonstrated by the growing support for socialism, as shown not merely in votes for DSA candidates in Democratic Party primaries, but in opinion polls that record increasing hostility to capitalism, as well as mounting opposition to the imperialist war against Iran. Neither paper resolutions nor lying commercials can make war, runaway prices, and attacks on democratic rights attractive to the great majority of American working people.
Four Democrats introduced an amendment at the House Rules Committee that would have retained the denunciation of the DSA and socialism but left out the praise of Trump and the SAVE America Act. The Republican-controlled committee blocked that amendment from coming to a vote.
Two other votes in House Tuesday showed willingness of key Democrats to support Trump and his fascist agenda, although they took opposite forms.
Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez, before voting for the anti-socialism bill, voted with Republicans to support a rule advancing a series of Republican resolutions to be voted on to provide “messaging” for the midterm elections. Votes on House rules are nearly always straight party-line votes, and the two Democrats did not inform the party leadership they would break discipline. Because five Republicans broke discipline to oppose the rule, the measure would have been defeated if the two Democrats had not supported it.
A second vote saw the vast majority of Democrats join with an equally large number of Republicans to adopt a continuing resolution to authorize the federal government—including the Pentagon—to continue spending at current levels through December 11, even though no actual appropriations bills have passed. The Senate has already passed the continuing resolution, which now goes to the White House for Trump’s signature, insuring that there will be no federal government shutdown before the November 3 election.
Republicans backed the stopgap spending bill by 193-19, while Democrats backed it 176-29. In effect, the 176 Democrats were making it possible for the Trump administration to continue the war on Iran, its repressive attacks on immigrants, and its preparations to use military force in other parts of the world and within the United States itself, during the midterm election.