Condemning Socialism. The Eighty-Six: A Study in Manufactured Courage

by Bruce Fanger

White Rose USA — November

 

Let’s strip away the spin and look at what actually happened. 

 

H. Con. Res. 58 — the Republican “condemn socialism” resolution — wasn’t some hot potato dropped on the House floor the morning Zohran Mamdani walked into the Oval Office. It wasn’t reactive. It wasn’t sudden. It wasn’t leadership panicking.

 

It was worse.

 

The bill was introduced in February 2025.

It sat in committee for most of the year.

Democratic leadership had nine months to kill it, ignore it, amend it, or bury it.

Instead, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Jim Clyburn walked it right onto the House floor themselves.

 

That choice tells you everything.

 

Because while Republicans timed the vote for maximum humiliation, it was Democratic leadership that made the decision to let it happen. Not under duress. Not in a moment of panic. But as a calculated signal — a pre-planned ritual cleansing to reassure donors, moderates, and the Sunday shows that the party’s left flank would be kept on a tight leash.

 

So while Mamdani — a democratic socialist who has actually called Trump a fascist to his face — was preparing to sit across from the President, the Democratic leadership wanted the cameras to see something else:

 

Eighty-six Democrats standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Republicans to condemn “socialism,” while saying nothing about the authoritarianism that’s actually restructuring the country.

 

This wasn’t ideology.

This wasn’t principle.

This was branding — the party distancing itself from the very people who give it its moral center.

 

Progressives didn’t just get thrown under the bus.

Leadership parked the bus, handed Republicans the keys, and said, “Take it for a spin.”

 

Because here’s the truth the Beltway will never say out loud:

 

The Democratic establishment is more terrified of appearing aligned with its own left wing than it is of confronting the MAGA right.

 

They didn’t condemn socialism.

They condemned courage.

They condemned clarity.

They condemned the only faction in their party still willing to speak in moral terms about authoritarianism.

 

And voters notice.

Especially when some of those eighty-six came from safe blue seats — meaning they didn’t vote this way out of survival, but out of obedience.

 

This is why I am not a Democrat.

Because when fascism is the threat, they treat the left as the problem.

When the country needs a spine, they offer a shrug.

When the moment demands defiance, they choose performance.

 

And the polite version of what comes next?

 

Several of those eighty-six are going to face primaries in 2026 — real ones, with real candidates — and the clip of this vote is going to be the centerpiece of every campaign.

 

Because if you can't stand up when it matters,

you shouldn’t be standing in Congress at all.