Democrats propose counter to GOP’s anti-socialism resolution

Four House Democrats decided this week that the smart move was to write their own anti-socialism resolution rather than vote for the Republican one already sitting on the floor. Think about that for a second. They agree with the substance closely enough to produce a competing document making basically the same point, but they can't bring themselves to put their names on Jeff Crank's version. That's not principle. That's stagecraft.

If DSA-style socialism is a problem worth condemning, it's a problem no matter whose letterhead the resolution carries. Splitting the difference so nobody has to cross the aisle just tells voters the real fight was never about socialism at all. It was about who gets credit, and who has to explain to their base why they voted with Republicans on anything.

There's also the obvious subtext here. A handful of Democrats clearly feel exposed by how loudly some of their colleagues have embraced socialist branding over the last decade, and they'd like a way to distance themselves without actually disagreeing with the people they're distancing themselves from. A parallel resolution lets them say they did something while changing nothing about the coalition or the politics underneath it.

If the point was ever the message, one resolution would have been enough. Instead we get two competing versions of the same complaint, introduced days apart, so both parties can claim they got there first. Voters watching this can tell the difference between conviction and cover, and this one isn't hard to read.