In a recent Wheaton Record piece, Illinois 6th district congressman Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove) is quoted as saying: “If the house is broken, do you call an arsonist or a carpenter? MAGA and the DSA are arsonists. To repair the institution, you need people of good character in office.”
Erica Bray-Parker (D) of Wheaton, whose campaign is the main subject of the article, is a solid candidate. Bray-Parker will certainly be a sea change from the 47th house district’s current representative. I’ve spoken with Bray-Parker personally about her support for important changes that Illinoisans need to afford life, such as taxing the rich and reforming Medicaid to end the corporate profit incentive. The Wheaton Record is just doing its duty of reporting, so my response is not to their writers or editors. I’d like to talk to Casten directly.
Sean, you call us arsonists. But buddy, you smell like gasoline.
The comparison between the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and MAGA is already becoming a tired trope among our country’s least-visionary political leaders. They see two political movements with mass membership and visions for change, and cry out for a return to “normalcy” so they can have brunch without having to reckon with the harm their complacency causes.
But the house is on fire.
MAGA is the current symptom of an ongoing political crisis. Americans are squeezed between rising costs, stagnating pay, and a collapsing opportunity structure. MAGA blames this on all the people our most bigoted neighbors already hate and gives them permission to broadcast it. MAGA is a slogan emblazoned on red hats, a piece of merch to signify in-group belonging and funnel money directly to our corrupt president. Obviously, immigrants, queer people, DEI, “critical race theory,” or whatever their latest complaint is, have nothing to do with the affordability crisis. The real causes include MAGA projects like ICE terror, a costly and pointless war with Iran, and historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
DSA, on the other hand, is dedicated to transforming our society to win what working people really need. Our national program, Workers Deserve More, calls for things like: 1) universal housing, healthcare, and childcare, 2) a Green New Deal with a federal jobs guarantee, and 3) an end to the US war machine so we can invest in public goods. Locally, our DSA chapter campaigns against Flock cameras and data centers that Big Tech pushes to pollute our communities and surveil us all.
So why is the house burning?
Because politicians like Sean Casten are bought and paid for by the same corporate interests that prop up MAGA. Remember Elon Musk (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and Sundar Pichai (Alphabet) behind Trump at his inauguration? Sean Casten has also taken money from Alphabet, SpaceX, and Amazon. These companies make up a part of the $649,250 in corporate money he’s taken in his career.
Healthcare costs are Americans’ number one cost of living concern: 27% of Americans polled said they were “very” worried about healthcare costs, ahead of concerns about gas prices, rent, or groceries. MAGA has a “Make America Healthy Again” wing, which seems mostly focused on selling quack remedies and leaving our most vulnerable behind to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, the second Trump Administration’s headliner legislation, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” slashes Medicaid spending and creates new barriers to coverage. Illinois stands to lose billions of dollars, and the full damage has yet to be calculated. Nearly 18% of the American economy is in the healthcare sector, largely because our insurance model creates a massive private bureaucracy at insurance companies and hospitals. We in DSA call for universal healthcare to slash that private bureaucracy and bring that sector of the economy into accountable, public ownership. Meanwhile Sean Casten has not sponsored the most recent Medicare for All proposal.
Is that what you call carpentry, Sean?
We in the DSA, call for an end to the US war machine, meanwhile Sean Casten boasts about his votes to fund Israeli military activity and refuses to discuss his support for genocide with his constituents. Even so-called “defensive” military funding enables Israel to spend resources on what must logically be “offense” (read: genocide). His district includes Chicago’s Little Palestine. In Gaza we see the fire. And, you guessed it, in Sean Casten’s FEC filings we see the gasoline: over $200k in donations from AIPAC-aligned funders.
Sean, you’re calling us arsonists (metaphorically) while you fund a (literal) genocide. Make it make sense.
It’s capitalism’s insatiable thirst for exponential profits that have set our country on fire. And it’s the politicians they’ve bought who feed the flames. Casten says we just need politicians with “good character” to fix our problems. How can you have good character when you’re bought and paid for? The solution isn’t to do more of the same – electing Democrats of “good character” who take corporate money is just throwing gasoline on the inferno.
So what do you do if you, like me, live in a house that’s on fire?
There is another way to live besides throwing gasoline. Maybe it’s too late to save the house; there’s been a lot of gasoline poured out. If the house is going to burn, maybe it’s an opportunity to build a new house that shelters all of its occupants. A house that’s really worth saving.
The DSA difference is electing candidates who not only share our values, but are committed members of our organization and are accountable to working people. We do that by building DSA, a democratically-run organization owned by working people’s small-dollar dues rather than corporations or big money funders. Our organization is the largest socialist organization in this country’s history. You can be a part of the change by visiting DSAusa.org/join.
Maxine Wolf is a co-chair of the West Suburban Illinois chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (WSILDSA), covering all of DuPage county and parts of Cook, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties. This piece was ratified by the Central Committee of WSILDSA.