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DSA leader says the quiet part out loud: ‘Our hatred of the United States Constitution’

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BS BULLETIN

  • DSA national leader Cliff Connolly said his Marxist Unity Group faction is known for its “hatred of the United States Constitution.”
  • Connolly called the Constitution “the obstacle” socialists ultimately must overcome to achieve revolution.
  • MUG’s own published program calls for a new constitution and describes communism as its maximum goal.

Every once in a while, somebody says something so plainly that the political spin room can take the afternoon off.

Cliff Connolly, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s National Political Committee, did exactly that in a resurfaced podcast interview.

Discussing the Marxist Unity Group, a faction operating within DSA, Connolly described what he said his group was known for. “Our commitment to a program and our, uh, hatred of the United States Constitution.”

Well.

Thank you for clearing that up.

The June 2025 appearance on the Varn Vlog resurfaced Monday after Natalie Winters of Steve Bannon’s War Room circulated the clip, sending it through conservative media. But the important part is not merely the provocative phrase. It is what Connolly said immediately afterward.

He described MUG’s political program as “a roadmap to revolution” and identified “the obstacle that we finally will have to get over to have a revolution” as “the United States Constitution, the basis of the United States government.”

And a look at Marxist Unity Group’s own writings shows that the language was not simply some one-off podcast flourish.

MUG describes itself as working to persuade DSA to adopt what it calls a “minimum-maximum program.” The group says the minimum portion would lay out policies necessary to establish “working-class political rule” and put society on a transition out of capitalism.

And the maximum program? MUG’s website defines the destination as “a world free of the market, borders, classes, and all other oppressive structures that exist under capitalism — in a word, communism.”

Again: their words.

Its 2025 draft program says the organization wants a revolutionary rupture leading to what it calls a “democratic worker’s republic.” Another MUG program states: “Our goal is to put workers in charge of the government through a new democratic constitution.”

The document says that constitution would establish a new political order, expand democratic rights and end what MUG calls U.S. imperialism.

A June 2025 essay from the group is even less ambiguous about its view of the present system. It argues that the U.S. Constitution was “written to protect the rich few from the working majority” and says socialists must “create a new republic based on a democratic constitution.”

So there is an important distinction worth making. Connolly did not say that every member of DSA personally hates the Constitution. The quote was about Marxist Unity Group and its reputation among DSA caucuses.

But Connolly is not some random anonymous account on social media. DSA’s own publication identifies him as a member of its National Political Committee, which DSA describes as its highest decision-making body between national conventions. He also serves on the organization’s Red Rabbits Security Commission and belongs to Orlando DSA.

And MUG is not disguising its ambitions.

One of its own pieces explaining what it means to “do MUG” says members should “criticize and condemn anti-revolutionary tendencies within DSA,” promote a revolutionary program and use criticism of what it calls the “undemocratic Constitution” as a central political organizing argument. That context matters because democratic socialists have been winning very real elections.

Recent victories by DSA-aligned candidates have shifted the organization from an activist curiosity into a growing force inside Democratic politics. Mediaite noted that DSA members Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez recently won New York Democratic primaries with support from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a DSA member.

That makes the debate over what DSA and its factions actually believe more than an academic exercise.

The conventional political argument has often been that democratic socialism in America is essentially Scandinavian-style social democracy: bigger government, stronger unions, higher taxes and expansive welfare programs operating comfortably inside the American constitutional system.

Marxist Unity Group is telling you something significantly different. Its published material talks about revolution. Its maximum objective is explicitly communism. Connolly simply made the formulation unusually memorable.

And conservatives aren’t the only people paying attention.

MUG itself complains repeatedly that American socialists become trapped inside conventional Democratic politics. Its draft program criticizes the post-Bernie Sanders left for dissolving back into the Democratic Party coalition and argues that socialists need an independent political movement united around a revolutionary program.

So while Democratic politicians increasingly welcome DSA endorsements, volunteers and candidates into their coalition, one faction represented on DSA’s national leadership is explicitly debating how to move beyond the existing American constitutional structure altogether.

Donald Trump has spent recent weeks warning that socialists and communists are making their move inside the Democratic Party.

A political opponent can dismiss that as Trumpian rhetoric. It’s considerably harder to dismiss when a DSA national leader smiles into a microphone and tells you one of the things his faction is famous for is its “hatred of the United States Constitution.” Sometimes the opposition research writes itself.

MY QUICK TAKE:

Well, that’s refreshing.

For years, conservatives would say, “These people don’t like the Constitution,” and some media fact-checker would materialize out of thin air:

FALSE. MISSING CONTEXT. SOCIALISTS MERELY FAVOR A MORE EQUITABLE CONSTITUTIONAL PARADIGM.

Then Cliff Connolly walks in:

“Actually, we’re famous for our hatred of the United States Constitution.”

Sir!

You’re ruining the fact-check.

And I especially love that little “uh” before “hatred.”

“Our commitment to a program and our, uh, hatred of the United States Constitution.”

Like he’s deciding between appetizers.

“Yes, we’ll have the calamari, the Caesar salad and, uh, overthrow the constitutional order.”

Folks, this is why you should occasionally listen when political radicals tell you what they believe.

Don’t immediately translate it into nicer language for them.

If somebody says his group’s destination is communism, I don’t need a Brookings Institution fellow explaining that what he really means is affordable child care.

He said communism.

If he says the Constitution is an obstacle to revolution, I don’t need a 1,500-word newspaper explainer entitled: Why ‘Obstacle’ Is More Complicated Than You Think.

The Founders designed the Constitution with checks, balances, divided government and individual rights partly because they understood something socialists never seem to enjoy hearing: Power needs obstacles.

So if your revolutionary program considers the Constitution an annoying speed bump, congratulations to James Madison.

Apparently the brakes still work.

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