Although I contributed to, and made calls on behalf, of our local Congressman here in Upstate New York, I have not been overjoyed by Josh Riley’s performance since taking office in January. But I was willing to cut him some slack, considering that our largely rural District 19 has gone back and forth between Republicans and Democrats five times since I moved here over 20 years ago.
I wish I had a congressman like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes or Jasmine Crockett or Jamie Raskin, who would take on Trump’s fascism at every opportunity, but hey, Josh does need to get re-elected next year, so standing up for our dairy farmers and vets and showing up at hometown parades are important. (See his website for a list of the many worthy causes he has supported)
But I have to tell Congressman Riley that I am very disappointed that he was one of 86 Dems who went along with a recent moronic resolution cooked up by Trump-loving Republican congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27) A quick look at her website will confirm that she’s talking about that overwhelming threat to the USA known as Zohran Mamdani. Presumably, Ms. Salazar also lumps Social Security, public education, and Medicare in with the gulags
Here’s the entire text of this thing which jumbles together every villain of the 20th century who ever used the word “socialist.” (I’m surprised she left out Hitler’s National Socialist Party) The fact that nearly all of them also claimed to be running “democracies” is ignored. Feel free to skim.
H. CON. RES. 58
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has, time and time again, collapsed into communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;
Whereas socialism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide;
Whereas many of the greatest crimes in history were committed by socialist ideologues, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolás Maduro;
Whereas tens of millions died in the Bolshevik Revolution, at least 10,000,000 people were sent to the gulags in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and millions more starved in the Terror-Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine;
Whereas between 15,000,000 and 55,000,000 people starved to death in the wake of famine and devastation caused by the Great Leap Forward in China;
Whereas the socialist experiment in Cambodia led to the killing fields in which over a million people were gruesomely murdered;
Whereas up to 3,500,000 people have starved in North Korea, dividing a land of freedom from a land of destitution;
Whereas the Castro regime in Cuba expropriated the land of Cuban farmers and the businesses of Cuban entrepreneurs, stealing their possessions and their livelihoods, and exiling millions with nothing but the clothes on their backs;
Whereas the implementation of socialism in Venezuela has turned a once-prosperous country into a failed State with the highest rate of inflation in the world;
Whereas President Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote, “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it”;
Whereas President James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”, wrote that it “is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest”; and
Whereas the United States was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.
Passed the House of Representatives November 21, 2025.
My congressman was hardly alone in wasting energy and time on this pointless resolution. Here is a list from the New Republic of the eighty-six Democratic congresspeople, led by Hakeem Jeffries, who were suckered into voting for what amounts to a cheap shot at the newly elected and very popular Mayor of New York.
- Pete Aguilar—California
- Gabe Amo—Rhode Island
- Jake Auchincloss—Massachusetts
- Ami Bera—California
- Sanford Bishop—Georgia
- Brandon Boyle—Pennsylvania
- Nikki Budzinski—Illinois
- Salud Carbajal—California
- Ed Case—Hawaii
- Kathy Castor—Florida
- Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick—Florida
- Gil Cisneros—California
- Katherine Clark—Massachusetts
- Jim Clyburn—South Carolina
- Herb Conaway—New Jersey
- Lou Correa—California
- Jim Costa—California
- Angie Craig—Minnesota
- Jason Crow—Colorado
- Henry Cuellar—Texas
- Don Davis—North Carolina
- Chris Deluzio—Pennsylvania
- Shomari Figures—Alabama
- Bill Foster—Illinois
- Lois Frankel—Florida
- Laura Gillen—New York
- Jared Golden—Maine
- Vicente Gonzalez—Texas
- Maggie Goodlander—New Hampshire
- Josh Gottheimer—New Jersey
- Adam Gray—California
- Josh Harder—California
- Jim Himes—Connecticut
- Steven Horsford—Nevada
- Chrissy Houlahan—Pennsylvania
- Hakeem Jeffries—New York
- Julie Johnson—Texas
- Marcy Kaptur—Ohio
- Bill Keating—Massachusetts
- Greg Landsman—Ohio
- Susie Lee—Nevada
- Mike Levin—California
- Ted Lieu—California
- Stephen Lynch—Massachusetts
- Seth Magaziner—Rhode Island
- John Mannion—New York
- Lucy McBath—Georgia
- April McClain Delaney—Maryland
- Kristen McDonald Rive —Michigan
- Gregory Meeks—New York
- Grace Meng—New York
- Joseph Morelle—New York
- Kelly Morrison—Minnesota
- Jared Moskowitz—Florida
- Seth Moulton—Massachusetts
- Frank Mrvan—Indiana
- Donald Norcross—New Jersey
- Jimmy Panetta—California
- Chris Pappas—New Hampshire
- Marie Gluesenkamp Perez—Washington
- Scott Peters—California
- Brittany Pettersen—Colorado
- Nellie Pou—New Jersey
- Josh Riley—New York
- Raul Ruiz—California
- Pat Ryan—New York
- Andrea Salinas—Oregon
- Brad Schneider—Illinois
- Hillary Scholten—Michigan
- Kim Schrier—Washington
- Eric Sorenson—Illinois
- Daren Soto—Florida
- Greg Stanton—Arizona
- Haley Stevens—Michigan
- Marilyn Strickland—Washington
- Tom Suozzi—New York
- Emilia Sykes—Ohio
- Dina Titus—Nevada
- Ritchie Torres—New York
- Lori Trahan—Massachusetts
- Gabe Vasquez—New Mexico
- Eugene Vindman—Virginia
- James Walkinshaw—Virginia
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz—Florida
- George Whitesides—California
- Fredrica Wilson—Florida
