Speaker Johnson’s warnings about DSA agenda take an unintentionally amusing turn
One of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s principal goals for the 2026 midterm elections is trying to tell voters that Democrats — or more to the point, candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America — are somehow further from the American mainstream than Republicans.
To that end, the Louisianan brought his pitch to the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference late last week, where he started reading portions of the DSA platform.
The Republican wanted conservative activists to know, for example, that some DSA candidates hope to “establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people.”
Johnson delivered the comments with a tone that suggested he found the idea to be sinister, if not utterly absurd.
The trouble is, I can think of another politician who hasn’t just talked about public ownership stakes in large corporations and essential industries, but who’s actually taken concrete steps to implement the idea.
His name is Donald Trump.
Indeed, it was earlier this month when the Republican president told reporters about his plans to create government ownership stakes in artificial intelligence companies, adding that he envisions “the American public essentially becomes a partner” in the growth of AI.
Asked which private AI companies he was eyeing, the president replied, “All of them.”
Recommended
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
Latest Post
