Below is my column in The Hill on the latest spin from the left to convince Americans to abandon core constitutional institutions and values as part of a radical agenda in the upcoming elections. Those who defend our traditions, on the 250th anniversary of our Republic, are now being accused of being “nostalgic” rather than progressive. It is a nostalgia that will take on a truly tragic element if professors, pundits and politicians are successful in this effort.
Here is the column:
It appears that the Madisonian democracy has joined shackets and combat boots as embarrassingly outdated for many on the left. In calling for radical changes to our constitutional system, leading Democrats are now calling the lingering loyalty to our traditions as mere “nostalgia.” To be nostalgic in today’s parlance is to be a dupe of the oligarchs and an enemy to reform.
“Nostalgia” has become the new coded term for reactionaries among Democratic figures, who are trying to convince Americans to accept radical changes to our republic after 250 years.
Kamala Harris recently insisted that opposition to ideas like packing the Supreme Court is mere “nostalgia” for a system that is no longer working. “I would caution us against talking about rebuilding with any sense of nostalgia about how things work, because even before, they weren’t working so well for a lot of folks,” she said. That “nostalgia,” according to Harris, is preventing us from doing things like packing the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last week also declared that “nostalgia is not working” and, while refusing to embrace socialism, added that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work.”
Morris Katz, a political strategist for Zohran Mamdani, spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash about looking beyond the label of democratic socialism and instead simply to accept that “our government does not work.” They are joining socialists who have long promised revolutionary changes without “introspection, nostalgia or regret.”
For the Democratic Socialist of America organization, nostalgia stands in the way of getting rid of the Senate, presidency, and the Supreme Court to fundamentally change the republic.
The effort is to condition Americans to adopt radical changes to our core institutions that professors and pundits say will guarantee Democrats never lose power again.
That is not an easy task for a people who have benefited from the oldest and most prosperous democracy for 250 years. They have to be very angry or very afraid to take such a radical course.
The Soviets understood that about the U.S. After Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent working in the media, defected in 1970, he revealed the four stages by which the Soviets hoped to bring about revolutionary change in the U.S. It began with undermining our institutions and values, with the help of journalists and academics.
With establishment figures lining up behind radical changes, including packing the Supreme Court, the public is hearing a constant drumbeat of how our system is broken.
Even Democratic judges are joining the chorus. Indeed, some appear to be auditioning for the slots promised by Democratic leaders to take over the court with a reliable liberal majority.
This week, the Hawaii Supreme Court issued an unhinged diatribe against the U.S. Supreme Court that abandoned any semblance of judicial restraint or decorum. It declared the majority as effectively racists, saying that “The Roberts Court sees only white.” It portrayed the court as a rogue institution that “overrides what Congress passed. It overrides what the people chose. All to serve its own ends.”
It is an opinion that would make an MS NOW host blush. But it follows a pattern on the left to get people to turn against our institutions and even against the Constitution itself.
Others are telling the public that they are being repressed by the Constitution, which must be scrapped. In a New York Times op-ed — “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed” — law professors Ryan Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
In yet another New York Times editorial, Jennifer Szalai denounced “Constitution worship” and claimed that “Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us. A growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.”
Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky insists that it is time to trash the Constitution in favor of “radical changes.”
These voices are seeking to remove all of the moderating elements of our system —the safety features that have produced the world’s most successful and stable republic. They are the very constitutional elements protecting us from the tyranny of the majority, protecting us from ourselves.
Without those protections, we will unleash the self-destructive forces that have been tearing apart other democratic systems since Athens. It is our constitution that spared us from that fate. As James Madison observed, “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”
Of course, history has shown that such radical proposals ultimately produce not democracy, but what the Framers called mobocracy. If we let that happen, many Americans will indeed look back at the last 250 years with a tragic sense of nostalgia.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times bestselling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
The demon rates need removed arrested prosecuted for TREASON when you don’t go by the Law of the Land Our Constitution as Written is the law of the land anyone trying to , Change, Twist, Destroy, or Distort, any of our Laws And The Constitution must be held accountable it is Treason that Constitution as Written has kept America the Freest Country in the World, it started with the lying pigs the Clinton’s, then the illegal lying Obama, then bush pushing our freedoms out because of 9/11 I think he was involved in that along with the Demoncrares, no way does a building hit by a jet just collapses, it blows up taking out half of the area, no buildings emplode on its own self unless set by experts to do so, time to hold judges politicians accountable for their Treasonous actions
Turley Writes:
“Nostalgia” has become the new coded term for reactionaries among Democratic figures”
…………………………………
I’m a Democrat and I never heard this term. Is Turley writing about real Democrats? Or is he writing about the Bernie Bros?
Currently the Bros are calling themselves ‘Democratic Socialists’. They’re not really Democrats and don’t pretend to be.
The Democratic Socialists are MAGA in reverse. They want to tear down everything and start over from scratch.
And because Donald Trump established a level of craziness, the Bros aspire to get even crazier. “If Trump can break every rule, we can break rules too. We’ll trash the constitution!”
It’s the Humpty Dumpty theory: ‘Once something smashes into little pieces, you can never put it back like it was before’.
Republicans could have spared us this nightmare had they avoided Trump.
“Or is he writing about the Bernie Bros?”
Apparently, you did not read the article, or are creating a strawman. Neither Newsom nor Harris are Bernie Bros.
He means in that they share the same ideology not that the are best friends. I have a question for you. Are you extremely stupid?
“I’m a Democrat and I never heard this term. ”
Probably not, but if you were in law school or college – any law school or college even if you did not hear the term
You would have heard the argument.
“Currently the Bros are calling themselves ‘Democratic Socialists’. They’re not really Democrats and don’t pretend to be.”
correct, but they are the power and energy in the Democrat party.
“The Democratic Socialists are MAGA in reverse. ”
In some sensese yes.
“They want to tear down everything and start over from scratch.”
That is not what MAGA wants.
Mostly they want the law followed.
In the few places they seek to change the law – they want to return to a recent previous state. Years ago, not decades.
“And because Donald Trump established a level of craziness”
Trump has never been more crazy than his opposition was BEFORE him.
Trump did not create the problems he claims to want fixed – democrats did – and not Bernie Bros.
Trump did not start the name calling. He just responded in kind.
Trump supporters tolerate even revel in much of his crazieness, because it is in defense of THEM.
When you call Trump crazy – you are nearly always calling Trump supporters who share the same values crazy too.
“If Trump can break every rule, we can break rules too. We’ll trash the constitution!”
Trump is not mostly breaking rules. He is following them.
That is what is being called crazy – following the rules,
enforcing the law.
“It’s the Humpty Dumpty theory: ‘Once something smashes into little pieces, you can never put it back like it was before’.
Republicans could have spared us this nightmare had they avoided Trump.”
Possibly true, but that has consequences – mass illegal immigration, European style stagnant growth,
……
You haven’t been paying attention much have you? Trump revealed these communist totalitarian scum to the light of day. Love him or hate him, he’s exposed them for their treason.
I am a Democrat and have never heard of this term.
I believe that as you watch the lying liberal networks that their goal is to keep you ignorant.
Maybe if you libs weren’t so ignorant you could have avoided the whole Potato Joe thing.
What’s Driving Socialists
A few hundred billionaires, around 0.0002% of the adult population, have a combined wealth equivalent to approximately 20 percent of GDP. This tiny set of hyper-wealthy individuals also accounts for approximately 20 percent of total campaign contributions and thereby exerts huge influence over public policy – a state of affairs that is a direct result of the Koch-created Roberts Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. The hyper-wealthy use their influence to push policies that are in their class’s interest, such as corporate tax cuts.
From Paul Krugman’s newsletter
“What’s Driving Socialists”
Marxist class warfare, envy of the rich, and a desire to use others as a means to your ends — which you and Krugman just confirmed.
Yes keep pushing envy
Nearly everyone is better off.
All taxes are paid for by consumption. Directly or indirectly
Th uber wealthy consume more than the rest of us – but far far less as a proportion of their weatlth.
Their wealth is well invested – in what we want and need.
You benefit far more from the weath of the uber rich, than you do from government or charity
🎶 Meet the new boss Same as the old boss 🎶
How does that meme go? “Democrats haven’t been this upset since Lincoln freed their slaves”
About a third of U.S. Democrats like political leaders who identify as democratic socialists
White Democrats (40%) are more likely than Asian (30%), Black (21%) and Hispanic Democrats (20%) to like leaders who describe themselves as democratic socialists.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/06/30/about-a-third-of-us-democrats-like-political-leaders-who-identify-as-democratic-socialists/
Meanwhile Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s (Democrat) poll numbers are in the toilet and only after 6 months in office.
Winsome Sears, a far better person, would have been a far better choice.
one of the huge problems is that whatever democrats sell themselves as when running for office, they are both far left and incompetent once elected.
No one expected Joe Biden to be a left wing nut president
Spanberg promised to be moderate
One of reasons for Trumps solid base is that he is what he says he is.
You know what you are getting.
It may not be exactly what you want, but there are no surprises.
Karl Marx, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights confer all the rights and freedom you require to establish a “CHARITY.”
Your concern for others is palpable and honorable.
Go open an American free enterprise charity, pursue your own form of happiness, and enjoy your life.
Oh, and leave everybody else alone; leave them to their own “pursuit of happiness.” Please!