Keep 'Em Coming

Following in Cleveland's footsteps, San Diego DSA passes the "For a Democratic Constitution" resolution. By Luke Pickrell

Three cheers for San Diego Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which voted last week to adopt the “For a Democratic Constitution” resolution. Keep ‘em coming. Gil Schaeffer, the author of two articles on this blog, wrote the resolution. Gil also participated in a four-part debate between me, Lucas, and fellow blog author Daniel Lazare. “For a Democratic Constitution” received widespread support from the San Diego Branch, including from DSA’s Libertarian Socialist Caucus (LSC). Hopefully, Lucas and I will be able to interview an LSC member about the resolution.

The resolution was inspired by Young Democratic Socialists of America’s (YDSA) and Cleveland DSA’s “Winning the Battle for Democracy” resolution (here and here). While it borrows heavily from those resolutions, San Diego’s version also raises the bar in several essential ways. The second clause injects the democratic principle of “one person, one equal vote” — a principle that the Constitution’s structural provisions flagrantly violate, as Aziz Rana points out in The Constitutional Bind. The fourth clauses link the Constitution to the continued subjugation of “Black, Indigenous, and other oppressed people,” noting that self-determination is denied by “inordinate power in a handful of predominantly white, low-population states.” For example, 35 percent of Californians and 80 percent of Wyomingites are white, and Wyomingites have greater representation in the Senate by a factor of almost four. The fifth clause provocatively and correctly asserts that no other demands in DSA’s Political Platform can be achieved under the existing Constitution.

Finally, the resolution’s title — “For a Democratic Constitution” — replaces the more ambiguous “Winning the Battle for Democracy” used by the previous two. Specificity is crucial: the fight for democracy in the U.S. is the fight for a democratic constitution.

The resolution can be read here and is reprinted in full below. 

San Diego Democratic Socialists of America

Resolution: For a Democratic Constitution

Inspired by Cleveland DSA’s Resolution, "Winning the Battle for Democracy," we propose San Diego DSA adopt the following “For a Democratic Constitution” Resolution:

Whereas, the United States is run by and for the capitalist class, and this class rule takes the specific form of the liberal-constitutional regime outlined in the Constitution; and,

Whereas, the Constitution was originally imposed undemocratically by an alliance of slave owners, bankers, merchants, and landlords to secure their property in opposition to the democratic principle of “one person, one equal vote;” and,

Whereas, the political institutions established by the Constitution are intended to be an obstacle to democracy at every step, including, but not limited to the outrageously unrepresentative Senate, Amendment provisions, Electoral College, and Imperial Presidency and military; and,

Whereas, DSA’s Platform affirms that DSA is an antiracist organization dedicated to the abolition of white supremacy and equal rights for all, yet the Constitution to this day serves to deny equality and self-determination to Black, Indigenous, and other oppressed people by placing inordinate power in a handful of predominantly white, low population states; and,

Whereas, the US constitutional order similarly stands in the way of achieving any of the Platform’s other goals; and,

Whereas, the DSA Platform declares “the nation that holds itself out as the world’s premier democracy is no democracy at all” and that “Democracy is necessary to win a socialist society. Socialism is the complete realization of democracy.”

Therefore, be it resolved, San Diego DSA advocates raising the demand for a new and radically democratic constitution, drafted by an assembly of the people elected by direct, universal and equal suffrage with proportional representation.

Additionally, San Diego DSA urges DSA as a whole to take up a stance of opposition to the Constitution, openly indicting it as antidemocratic and oppressive and taking concrete actions to advance the struggle for a democratic republic, such as agitating against undemocratic judicial review, fighting for proportional representation, delegitimizing the anti-democratic Senate, and advancing the long-term demand for a democratic constitution.  We declare that to be a socialist is to fight for an expansive working-class democracy in which the state and society are democratically managed by the majority.  In the US this means demanding a new constitution.

Be it finally Resolved, this resolution shall be published on the San Diego DSA website.