Below is my column on Fox.com about the growing condemnation of capitalism in the Democratic Party as establishment figures such as Gov. Gavin Newsom pander to the extreme left of their party. It is a rising mantra among those who ignore the economic foundations of liberty in our Republic, a connection expressly made by the Framers in their embrace of Adam Smith at the time of our founding. Like a game of musical chairs, champagne socialists are rushing to find a seat before the music stops in the coming elections. Ironically, only in the United States are socialist figures in the top percent of earners and own multiple homes from Bernie Sanders to Abdul El-Sayed. As Yakov Smirnoff would say, “What a country!”
Here is the column:
“Imagine the end of capitalism.” Those words in the Democratic Socialists of America manifesto offer Americans a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and “food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation… are common goods and utilities.”
The left often refers to radical changes as “reimagining” everything from police to the Supreme Court to prisons to borders. However, the rise of socialists in the Democratic Party has moved such claims from the merely rhetorical to the outright revolutionary.
The release of the DSA platform on Bastille Day, July 14, was fitting since the Jacobins pushed for the same unicameral system that the socialists are now advocating. The platform promised to change the constitutional system and end the rule of “the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers.”
The DSA, which counts various Democrat figures such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, includes a plan to eliminate the Senate, the Supreme Court, the presidency and other institutions in remaking the American constitutional system.
In my new book “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” I discuss the rise of socialism and the move among professors and pundits to scrap key aspects, or the entirety, of our constitutional system on the 250th anniversary of the republic.
The book compares many of these proposals to identical policies of the Jacobin movement in the French Revolution. It is a book about revolutions and how they can consume those who start them. Both the American and French revolutions arose during the same period, but one became the world’s oldest democracy while the other became a blood-soaked tyranny known as “The Reign of Terror.”
Notably, the Jacobins pushed for the same unicameral system that the socialists are now advocating. Even figures such as Thomas Paine (one of two figures who played a significant role in both revolutions) supported such measures to allow for more direct democracy.
It was an approach that the Framers expressly rejected. Great students of history, they did not want to replicate the elements that led to the destruction of past democracies going back to ancient Athens. Benjamin Rush, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, referred to it as democracies becoming “mobocracies.”
The DSA is the direct descendant of the Jacobins in seeking to tear down moderating institutions and replace the president and justices with democratically elected figures by a Congress composed only of the House of Representatives. However, many of these suggestions are also found among leading academics and influencers.
As with the original Jacobins, those demanding these changes are not the working class but professors, pundits and young college-educated voters.
Mainstream figures such as Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School, have published books such as “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”
The media eagerly publishes these radical views, such as the New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” in which Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale call for the nation to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
It was an approach that the Framers expressly rejected. As discussed in “Rage and the Republic”:
“Those who want to remain in favor often pander to the extremes. Radical leftist sites like the Jacobin have grown in popularity… They use some of the same words and symbols but still seem improvisational and inauthentic, like a child’s game of dress-up with oversized outfits. Indeed, that is precisely the danger.
“There is little knowledge, let alone memory, of what such radicalism became under the real Jacobins. There is the same blissful ignorance that allowed Rousseauian dilettantes to mutate into monsters, escalating radical agendas with every failure… As the popular slogans became disastrous policies, the momentum would carry them beyond any point of recognition or return. The new Jacobins show the same blind ambition and abandon in striking out at institutions and the Constitution itself.”
Those slogans are now preying on the gullible and the vulnerable. Take the recent pitch of Michaela Brangan, DSA national political education chair, who declared that with socialism:
“[Y]ou are able to take a day off and not have to worry and you don’t have to have a job just to pay the bills because you do not have a lot of bills. Right? Bills are no longer a thing because there’s not for-profit businesses that are constantly trying to exploit you and trying, you know, to put you into debt.”
She laughed at the suggestion of, “Why do we have a Senate? What is so great about the Senate?”
If she wants that answer, she only needs to look around her at the mob seeking to destroy the world’s oldest and most successful republic in history.
She is right about one thing. Capitalism has played a critical role in our republic. This is the 250th anniversary of not just our Declaration but the publication of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” which the Founders eagerly embraced. They believed that you could not be truly independent and free if you are not economically independent and free. They rejected the economic dependency pushed by many on the left.
The left has found a voice in the class warfare espoused by Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and others. However, it is not a new voice. It is the same Siren’s call that we rejected 250 years ago. Paine himself would barely survive in France and come to appreciate the structural precautions that Founding Father and President James Madison created in our system that were absent in the French system.
After the Jacobins implemented some of these very same policies, they destroyed their economy and then devoured themselves in waves of executions. Once again, these same voices are asking a people to destroy the most successful and stable democracy in history.
Mainstream figures are conditioning the public for radical changes, often using the same coded messaging. Former Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed the opposition to ideas like packing the Supreme Court as mere “nostalgia” for a system that is no longer working.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently also pandered to the mob in declaring that “nostalgia is not working,” and added, “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.”
It is not “nostalgia” that binds us to this constitutional system. It is the faith in a system based on natural rights; a system that protects the minority from the majority. It is a system based on faith in both political and economic independence; the embrace of freedom and free-market principles that created the greatest prosperity in history.
We have heard these voices before and we would be wise to take them seriously if we are, as Benjamin Franklin asked, to keep this Republic for the next generation.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of the Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
It’s the mainstream media. It helped to promote all of these left-wing communist ideas.
Tax Cuts To Billionaires Amid Growing Debt
On June 30, 2025, the title of a White House news release claimed “The One Big Beautiful Bill Slashes Deficits, National Debt While Unleashing Economic Growth.”
The reality:
Just before Trump took office, the nation’s debt was $36.2 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The debt is now more than $39.5 trillion, an increase of $3.3 trillion.
Fom Thomas Edsall
Today’s New York Times
………………………………………….
Just that name, ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is a sharp stick in the eye to anyone who really cares about truth.
All those lay-offs triggered by DOGE merely funded tax cuts to billionaires while that National Debt continued to grow by $3 trillion. What’s more, Trump now expects Congress to approve roughly $100 billion to fund the war in Iran which Congress has never voted on.
Yes rich people make jobs so.we all prosper. How many jobs do poor people make? You need capital to run a business. You risk your capital to.run.a business. You devote inordinate amounts of time to run a business. You innovate to run a successful business. You take risks to get a business going.
Workers just show up and get paid. Big difference.
Did you ever see a poor person hire someone ?
” rich people make jobs”
Not anymore. Rich people take over companies that have high employment, make deep job cuts, saddle the company with debt, extract the cash and declare bankruptcy.
Very few are prospering, most are barely getting by.
The Chinese communists love capitalism.
The communists in China love Hong Kong, “the golden egg,” and the capitalist billionaires it has exempted from its repression to obtain capitalist profits.
The failure of Communism as an economic system should be judged by its number of deaths worldwide in the 20th century from executions, purges, famines, state sponsored starvation in Ukraine, forced relocation of ethnic populations to Siberia, political repression, the Gulag, the Great Purge 1936-38, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and The Great Leap Forward, deportations from Eastern Europe. Experts a total of 85 to 100 million deaths worldwide in the 20th century. Communism as a form of government is more than a failure it is an ATROCITY. American Patriot
WWII which ushered in the conditions for Russian strangling Ukraine was 100% on the capitalists taking revenge on Germany following WWI. Without that Stalin would not have had the power he gained and China would not have followed it.
Capitalism drove the creation of conditions ripe for WWII.
The only difference I would have with JT in his assessment is that all this dreck he describes so well is not so much ‘revolutionary’ as ‘devolutionary’. Chez Odysseus
It’s amazing as the rich socialist rob and enslave the common Democrat and socialist the stupid deluded saps come here to brag about their Uber rich leaders who get richer every minute.
You can’t fix stupid.
“[Y]ou are able to take a day off and not have to worry and you don’t have to have a job just to pay the bills because you do not have a lot of bills.” HILARIOUS! Every time these DSA types talk it becomes apparent that they have never actually dealt with HUMANS. What do they suppose happens to a country or a society where nobody feels that they “have to” do anything?
And that they have never had a job.
208Kid: Well said! These ignorant radicals have no clue about what motivates us humans. They wouldn’t know what an incentive is if it bit them in the ass.
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!
Michaela Brangan’s ignorance is beyond stunning. She claims that with socialism, “[Y]ou are able to take a day off and not have to worry and you don’t have to have a job just to pay the bills because you do not have a lot of bills. Right? Bills are no longer a thing because there’s not for-profit businesses that are constantly trying to exploit you and trying, you know, to put you into debt.” Somehow non-profit enterprises run for free, provide goods and services for free, and have no need for reliability to provide said goods and services. This is also a very static, zero sum game view of our world. What incentivizes an inventor such as Steve Jobs to bring to the world an iPhone, iPad, and iPod?
The US is perhaps unique in that it developed a market economy simultaneously with a representative democracy. The market economy rests of the principle of a voluntary exchange between private parties. (We have some notable exceptions to that rule.) I find it ironic that the very people wanting to demolish the market economy (capitalism) use the goods and services provided by that very market economy to further their message. Now consider the case of a socialist economy where the means of production are controlled by the state (e.g. China). It would be impossible for some radical new Adam Smith to get published.
Let us be extraordinarily careful to discard the very system that sustains us in both good and services as well as the exchange of ideas.
End federal aid to States. Any US State, that cannot itself provide for the constitutional protections and provide whatever entitlements they have bequeathed upon their populace, is no longer sovereign, and the Federal government should only recognize that failed state as a US possession until they can again provide for their citizens.
Debt, defense, and “general Welfare” are all the Congress may tax for and fund.
General Welfare is security and basic infrastructure that serves all or the whole, not some, one, or a few; not individual, specific, or particular welfare, favor, or charity.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States….
Good point.
It has been quite some time since anyone on this blog advised certain high- profile characters to wear Kevlar. These recently self-professed DSA ‘leaders/spokespersons’ are painting a target on their own backs.
Just sayin’ —
Except that the assassination chic culture is exclusive to the left. You don’t see Dem presidential candidates getting shot, nor do you see Dem political commentators getting assassinated.
If the DSA takes power Schumur and Hakeem will have targets on their backs. The socialist will want to stop a counter revolution.
“wear Kevlar”
Should push actually come to shove, I recommend forgoing the Kevlar armor for AR500 plates, at a minimum of Level III/RF1. That will stop 7.62 NATO/.308 FMJ, as well as nearly all handgun ammo. AR00 steel is less comfortable, but both more capable and more affordable. The other downside is that they are generally less concealable, but at that point, who cares?
Seeking relief from the latest tariffs slapped on his nation’s goods, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Donald J. Trump on Tuesday that the orange air blanketing regions of the United States was intended as a “spectacular tribute” to the US president.
“We Canadians were thinking of something special we could give you for your birthday, and this is what we came up with,” Carney said.
“We thought that turning the skies above Washington orange would be a spectacular tribute to you, much as the Reflecting Pool is an amazing tribute to Greenland,” he added.
After Trump agreed to drop the tariffs, Carney thanked him, adding, “I would urge you to go outside and breathe in as much of that beautiful orange air as you can.”
Trump responded subsequently with $40 Trillion in EPA fines in accordance to our Clean Air Act. You should take heed as you have been a listed repetitive source of foul Gas…
When you tell the Next Generation that:
1. The Government won’t be there for you when you get Old (No more Social Security – Bankrupt)
2. That the ‘economic-viability’ of the future is disappearing (A.I. on the horizon)
3. The available resources are dwindling and will be unaffordable (Food, Shelter, Basic Energy)
4. That change is not possible and they are trapped (Stagnant Bureaucracy, Controlled Governance, Marshall Law)
Then the Next Generation look for and open more opportunistic methods to survive.
So be it that the Next Generation has turned away from what we have to offer today.
The Constitution is said to be designed to ‘Change’, but obviously not in the way that that is competitive to the survival of the Next Generation.
“2. That the ‘economic-viability’ of the future is disappearing (A.I. on the horizon)”
Said every zero sum Malthusian since the invention of the power loom and the introduction of railroads.
Sam – good point. “Dead in the water” must be pretty desperate for her political position to be based on the premise that technological advancement is a bad thing.
Luddites unite. LOL
Martial law, not Marshall law
Don’t tell Marshal Dillion or Festus.
Or the Marshall plan…
Place is utter chaos…God’s blessings PT.
It would also be stated as: “Surveillance State”.
“Next Generation” needs to get a job. There will be no communist revolution to support your laziness and all your points are false.
1. SS fail? They’ve been saying this since I can remember, 50+ years. SS still going strong. this is fear-based politics.
2. AI will create jobs and wealth. get in on it, luddite. this is fear-based politics.
3. resources are not scarce not at all. There is so much abundance it’s unreal! look around you. this is fear-based politics.
4. Why would you want to change all this good stuff? Why not take advantage of the opportunities this fantastic system has in abundance instead of a system proven to fail? Stop listening to the fear-based politics and get a viewpoint of your own.
“1. SS fail? They’ve been saying this since I can remember, 50+ years. SS still going strong. this is fear-based politics.” -Anon
That’s not the narrative the Next Generation is being told:
Crisis Comes Closer: Social Security’s Projected Insolvency Moved A Year Earlier
By: Tyler Durden ~ Thursday, Jun 11, 2026
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/crisis-comes-closer-social-securitys-projected-insolvency-moved-year-earlier
The Next Generation is more sensitive to these parlance’s, as They are consumed by the realization of their Own viability and survival.
Anon, You’re older and have the luxury of being dismissive.
@Dead in the Water
We were all told similar, we chose not to believe it and find our grit, and find ways to make our ways through the world. The victim mentality boosheet has got to stop, it is very, very tired. The fact is the proponents of this stuff are soft, pure and simple. Life doesn’t owe anyone anything, and those of us who have made it did so very consciously. I do not want to hear this coming from people that go into debt for tattoos or are disappointed they can’t exist at the level of their idols who live off of generational wealth. Create something. Offer a useful service. Spend money on food instead of toys and tattoos and drive a used car. If they were lied to by anyone, it was whoever put the notion into their head that college was some kind of magical golden ticket. Life is hard. We are all capable of doing things that are hard.
James,
I read your comment earlier and it stuck with me.
At one time, it was a virtue to be self-reliant, independent, but having the humility to know when to ask and know it is okay to ask for help. Like moving a new washer up to the second floor. Other similar traits like a good work ethic, savings, delayed gratification, even showing up to work on time and dressed in an business appropriate dress.
Now, we are told those once virtues are now toxic masculinity and the real virtue is to be a victim of . . . whatever.
At one time, college was a guarantee to the middle class. Not any more. The debt load to the quality education is very questionable. I have been reading about a number of what were once “entry level jobs” now expect one or more years of experience.
Life is hard. Even harder if you are not so bright with a college degree.
James – It is apparent that you read my comment correctly. My point was that the Next Generation ‘is being told’ these conditions await them, thus why wouldn’t They look for more viable opportunities. Of course They are and the Politicians (puppet masters) that Jonathan mentioned are using their position to manipulate the population of the Next Generation to their advantage.
That has been the lie for 2026 years. Were still all here and so our the resources. You must be a socialist Ludite.
And who is behind AI? Who rights the programs? Who said AI would be the biggest benefit to humans ever? Liberals. LOL
Anon – you missed the point. AI (and Robotics) are an existential threat to the Next Generation.
No different than Robotic-Automation coming to the Automobile Assembly lines in the 70’s.
We all know what happened to Detroit – The Jobs (opportunities) dried up or moved elsewhere.
Thank you, sir. Many have forgotten history, and too many others have not even been taught, by design. Keep sounding the alarm.
Many have forgotten history, and too many others have not even been taught, by design.
Amen.
Net Worth of Commies
Kim Jong-un (N. Korea) $5 Billion
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/presidents/kim-jong-un-net-worth/
Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) $1 Billion
Fidel Castro $900 Million
Raul Castro $100 Million
Barack Obama (community organizer) $70 Million
Hillary Clinton (White House furniture bandit) $120 Million
Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) $50 Million
Xi Jinping (China) $1.4 Billion
Xi Mingze, Xi Jinping’s daughter, began showcasing her opulent lifestyle on her Twitter as early as 2022. Her posts featured high-end jewelry from Van Cleef & Arpels, exquisite watches from Patek Philippe, and more. Brands like Louis Vuitton seem to have lost their allure for her, as she now favors Hermès and Chanel
🤣
Diamonds a girl’s best friend
Xi is the most powerful man in the world.
Turley Writes:
“The media eagerly publishes these radical views, such as the New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,”
…………………………………..
Here Turley provides a link ‘not’ to The New York Times but to Fox News coverage of NYT columns.
You see it’s safer to get the NYT filtered through Fox News. That way conservative readers won’t be challenged by some reference that contradicts rightwing talking points.
Could it be that Professor Turley realizes that the NYT articles are behind paywalls but the Fox article is available to all?
excellent response.
Obviously.
How convenient. That way Fox News can tell us what the NYT is saying.
News sources report what other news sources say all the time. If the NYT doesn’t like the way it’s being characterized, and it wants to make its original reporting available for inspection by the public, it has the ability to remove its paywall.
Ever heard the old saying you get what you pay for??
At Fox.com, you pay exactly what their “news” is worth – ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
nonny at 3:05 Love the way you go down! fighting to the end!
so…you have nothing to controvert the assertion? good job helpy helperton!
Historians of the French Revolution tend to focus on the Terror in Paris, but what happened elsewhere in France was possibly worse. The suppression of Royalist opposition in the Vendee (the region in western France south of the Loire) led to acts of outright genocide. Victor Hugo fictionalized the military’s campaign of extermination in his novel Ninety-Three. His father was one of the generals who commanded troops there.
After DSA takes over you will be allowed to take a day off if and only if the local commissar permits it. You won’t have any constitutional rights: such rights would impose constraints on the People’s will. You will not only be denied your right to express opposition to governmental policies but you will be compelled to vociferously voice support for them. Only the government will have arms. You will be compelled to testify against yourself if such testimony advances some governmental goal. With all the billionaires gone the US economy will tank — all investments in industries will be gone. The DSA zealots imagine that billionaires just keep their wealth as bins full of coins and cash (sort of like Uncle Scrooge McDuck’s money room).
The 19th century was a conservative era in Europe b/c people remembered the French Revolution. Now graduates of American high schools have not even heard of the French Revolution.
“Historians of the . . .”
That entire comment was truly excellent!
And as you probably know, because of the tyranny that followed the FR, Hugo had to flee France.
Great post, Professor. My favorite part of all of this is seeing the sheer shock exhibited by naive? “normal” Dems as to how easily (and happily!) the Socialists have taken over their party! It reminds me of Aunt Pittypat (Gone With the Wind)-
“Yankees in Georgia!??? How ever did they get here??!!”
Gone with the Wind: love that movie. So many one-liners that are legendary.
….eat like a field hen and gobble like a hog…..And I ain’t noticed Mr Ashley asking for to marry you
Mammy / Hattie McDaniel steals the scenes in the film many times over
Hope you are well Cindy!
Eternal Light of the Confederacy, dedicated by the DAR on the publication of “Gone with the Wind”, Atlanta Georgia.
Estovir………Gracias, you maravilloso cubano!
Would lower population states have the right to leave the republic if the Senate was abolished? Seems like breach of contract when these states voted to join.
Jim
That would be a NO, but a hell NO.
As just witnessed in Nicaraqua, they make all decisions for you in their best interest.
Socialism is the system in which the government owns the means of production, right? So why is no one even talking about, much less protesting, Trump’s policy of “the administration taking an equity position in corporations” these days?
Interesting comment. However, if you don’t site a source it must be assumed that the idea was hatched from the space between your ears. Pravda doesn’t count.
I don’t know about “means of production”, literally, but there is a valid point lurking in there. Exactly where in the powers of the Federal government as enumerated in the Constitution is owning equity in corporations covered?
Heffner, what are you talking about? Taking an equity position is not anything equal to OWNING the means of production. Your comment does not even rise to the level of argument. Here, Heff, why don’t you look at the Biden administration
https://berggruen.org/news/public-equity-stakes-in-u-s-economic-policymaking
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/biden-administration-investment-tracker/
William Heffner , In America, anyone can own whatever means of production they want (as long as it’s done legally).
In fact, in America, ALL us Americans DO own our own means of production and we don’t need to oppress anyone to do it.
Why not join in and invest or create, then you too will own some means of production instead of taking it from others.
Willy
Socialism is that brief stop along the downhill path, where the political class enrich themselves with the wealth taken from others. Once this wealth is consumed by the Party elites and somewhat disturbed to the idiots that bought into their fallacy it continues downward on the path to full blown communism. You will know you have arrived when people are all equally poor, equally sick, equally uneducated, and equally housed in a slum or equally dead. An unmistakable trait of arrival will be there is a strong evident force of fellow citizens ready to report on you for your party discretions for a few extra beans or loaf of government bread at distribution time. You will also see everyone pretends to be happy and call you comrade as they go home to their shack hungry, broke and tired each day.
How nice a central committee of the biggest grifters, all the free stuff and luxuries of life you could possibly want. A free two week billionaire like vacation for you and your family on Plum Island, not once but twice a year.
When you get right down to the core of the socialist philosophy what they want is the power of life and death over the citizenry. Unlike the same desire yearned for by the serial killer the process is just slower but the nevertheless the end result is the same. The serial killer carries out his acts quickly but the socialist hides behind a mantle of being sorry for its victims before the beheadings began. Millions killed by socialist in Germany and Russia are not to be considered because the ability to control the death of a person is so overwhelming tantalizing. Serial killers in hoodies are dangerous but serial killers in suits are to be feared the most. Some are just slightly less radical but not enough to make a difference.