Top Democrats call it ‘crazy.’ Their party calls it the ‘big tent’

I served 22 years as a U.S. Marine and fought in three wars. The oath I took was not to a party. It was to the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath does not expire when the uniform comes off.Anyone who claims to support veterans and to honor the sacrifices of their families cannot then vote for a candidate who would destroy the thing we swore a blood oath to support and defend. The two claims cannot occupy the same sentence. You do not honor the dead by treating their charter as optional.We are told the Democratic Party is a big tent. The phrase sounds generous, but it fails the moment the tent will not reject platform planks written to take the Constitution apart. The Democratic Socialists of America’s 2026 program, “Workers Deserve More,” is not a rumor. It calls to abolish ICE, grant amnesty regardless of legal status, take steps “towards fully abolishing the police and prison system,” abolish the Senate, and replace the president and the Supreme Court with an executive and a judiciary “chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” DSA co-chair Megan Romer confirmed the core of it on television: Abolish the Senate, true; abolish ICE, absolutely; replace the presidency and the Supreme Court as we know them, yes.Politicians have already spoken against that platform. They should be quoted, not excused.Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) read the document and rejected it in public. “As a Democrat, I reject what the DSA is doing,” he said. “They want to get rid of the Senate. I reject that. They want to get rid of ICE. I reject that. They want to defund police. I reject that. They want to have open borders. I reject that. They want to get rid of prisons. I reject that.” Former Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison told the socialists, with no warmth wasted, that if they hate the Democratic Party, they should stop running for its nomination and build the party they actually support.The Senate caucus has spoken too, and not only from the center. Asked about abolishing the Senate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a man who calls himself a “democratic socialist,” answered: “No.” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said the chamber “is in the Constitution” and that abolition “is not a serious recommendation.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she did not even know what the proposal meant. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) called the package what it is: crazy. Democrats across the caucus told NOTUS they were not on board with restructuring Congress.So the claim is not that no politician has objected. The claim is sharper. Some have objected, on the record, by name. The party that wants veteran votes has not made those objections the price of admission. A big tent that hears Cuellar, Kelly, Fetterman, and even Sanders say no, and then keeps nominating the candidates who say yes, has decided the objection was optional. Optional objections do not bind a platform. They decorate it.Democrats who truly support veterans need to finish the sentence their colleagues started. They need to say, clearly, that they do not support a socialist agenda to dismantle the American way of life. To stay silent, and to accept that agenda into the tent, is to announce that everything is up for discussion, including the document that made the discussion possible. To entertain the destruction of the Constitution is an insult, a slap in the face to everyone who has served this nation and sworn to defend it.James Madison saw where this road ends. In Federalist No. 47, he wrote that the accumulation of legislative, executive, and judicial power in the same hands “may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” That is the architecture that the DSA program would collapse.George Washington put the duty in plainer words. In his Farewell Address, Washington said the Constitution, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, “is sacredly obligatory upon all.” Not upon veterans alone. Upon all. Lawful amendment is the people’s right. Demolition by slogan is not.There is a second problem, and it is both moral and legal. Members of Congress, the president, federal judges, and every service member swear the same core obligation: to support and defend the Constitution, and to take that obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. How can a candidate swear that oath and, in the same season, campaign to abolish a chamber of Congress and subordinate the Court to the legislature? An oath taken with a plan to undo the thing sworn to is not an oath. It is evasion. This ought not be.BREAD LINES OR BREAD WINNING? THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S FATAL LEFTWARD DRIFTGallup reported in September that 65% of Democrats now view socialism positively, up from 50% in 2010. The softer label does not change the destination. A plan to erase the Senate and the separation of powers is not a quarrel about tax rates. It is a different country.On Nov. 3, every House seat and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot. If you mean it when you say you honor veterans, do not vote for a faction that has published its intent to dismantle the oath. The politicians who have already spoken against the DSA platform have shown that speech is possible. The rest do not get to claim the big tent and the oath at the same time. Silence is an answer. It is the wrong one.Aaron Helstrom is a retired Master Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. He served 22 years and fought in three wars. He lives in Woodland Park, Colorado. This essay is written in his personal capacity.