By Gary Benoit

Even in today’s woke times, most Americans, if asked, would say they oppose socialism. So would most politicians. Yet the country has, over time, become increasingly socialistic. Why is this?

One reason is that many Americans, including many who consider themselves anti-socialist, do not possess enough understanding to recognize socialist policies for what they are. They may recognize that full-blown socialism is destructive of freedom and prosperity, but still be blissfully unaware of the creeping socialism that leads to full-blown socialism.

Another reason is the difference between the rhetoric and record of many politicians – and that includes socialist politicians whose constituents oppose socialism and would vote out of office a self-proclaimed socialist.

The idiom “Actions speak louder than words” is particularly apropos when it comes to deceptive politicians. But occasionally the deception is not only in the words they utter, but also in the actions they may take. In such cases, albeit rare, both the words and the actions are deceptive.

Such was the case in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 21, 2025, when many congressmen who routinely vote for unconstitutional Big Government socialist policies joined their genuinely anti-socialist colleagues in overwhelmingly passing House Concurrent Resolution 58. This concurrent resolution (you guessed it!) denounces socialism, and in its 12 “Whereas” clauses, it provides good reasons for this denouncement, including:

– “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 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”; and

– “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.”

It goes on to resolve: “That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.”

H. Con. Res. 58 passed by the lopsided vote of 285 to 98. Yet this lopsidedness could not have occurred unless the “yeas” included not just representatives who genuinely oppose “the implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” but also representatives who claim to be against socialism while supporting it in at least some of “its forms.” How could it be otherwise? After all, if 285 members of the House truly oppose socialist policies, then those policies would soon cease to exist – if for no other reason than that all funding bills must originate in the House.

To see how House members voted on H. Con. Res. 58, go to congress.gov/votes/house/119-1/305. We recommend doing so, in part, to find out who the 98 congressmen were who brazenly voted against denouncing socialism. Perhaps not surprisingly, all of them were liberal Democrats, including such nationally known names as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), and Maxine Waters (Calif.).

It is also instructive to take a look at the 285 yeas. They included all 199 Republicans who voted, as well as 86 Democrats. But how many of these Republicans and Democrats sincerely oppose socialism in all its forms? If we were to subscribe to the commonly held belief that the Republican Party is the conservative party and the Democratic Party is the liberal/socialist party, then it might be easy to assume that the Republicans who voted to denounce socialism are sincere and the Democrats are not. But making that assumption would be a mistake, since many Republicans have also supported socialism without calling it that. In fact, according to Democratic Representative James Himes (Conn.), who voted for the resolution, even the MAGA president has shown he supports socialism in at least one of its forms by taking a 10-percent stake in Intel, as well as significant stakes in other companies. “If the definition of socialism is political control over the means of production, welcome to the great socialist state of the United States of America,” he said on the House floor prior to the vote on H. Con. Res. 58.

He also said that “we are now living in one of the most socialist countries on the planet.”

It would be hard to argue that Himes is wrong in this assessment – just as it would be hard to argue that he is against socialism, despite his vote to denounce it. How do we know that he is not anti-socialist? The best way is to take a look at how he votes on important legislation in Congress. And that applies to all members of Congress, Republicans as well as Democrats.

The New American magazine, a publication affiliate of The John Birch Society, periodically publishes “The Freedom Index,” which rates how every member of the House and Senate votes on key issues based on the U.S. Constitution, which limits the federal government to a few specified powers. Those who routinely vote for Big Government socialism do not score well on this index, while those who honor their oath of office to the Constitution do. (In case you are curious, Himes has a score of zero percent in the current 119th Congress to date.)

I recommend going to TheFreedomIndex.org to see how your own U.S. representative and senators, as well as others, are voting. You may be surprised by what you see. Though Republican scores are higher than Democrat scores, even Republican scores are lacking. There are constitutionalist-minded Republicans, and then there are the neoconservatives.

In “The Freedom Index,” by the way, you will not find last November’s vote on H. Con. Res. 58, for the simple reason that the editors did not want to give a favorable rating to pretenders who denounce socialism while supporting it. Nor will you find a vote on President Trump’s unilateral decision to acquire significant stakes in major companies. Congress should vote to prohibit the president from unconstitutionally interjecting himself into the market. But thus far, Congress has not done so. You will however find many key votes that show where U.S. lawmakers actually stand. Ditto for the state legislators of all 50 states, whose votes we also monitor based on constitutional principles.

The problem of our continuing downward slide into full-blown socialism is bipartisan. The solution is to become informed and insist that politicians honor their oath of office to the Constitution irrespective of their party affiliation – and that includes opposing socialism in all its forms.