Lawmakers consider push to strip Democratic Socialists of America of nonprofit status
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., put it succinctly to The Daily Signal when he said, “communists are going to communist.”
Fine is one of several lawmakers on the federal and state level considering an effort to strip the Democratic Socialists of America of its tax-exempt nonprofit status after the DSA announced last week that it will travel to visit Cuba’s communist regime to “volunteer” their “labor in solidarity,” and fight America’s “brazen imperialism.”
“These are Mamdani supporters going directly to the enemy of the United States,” Fine claimed. “I will see if the communist trip violates the rules of an organization’s non-profit status, and if that is the case, I will absolutely consider bringing forth legislation to revoke them of their status.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal that “maybe they ought to stay in Cuba if socialism is such a dream after all,” in response to the DSA’s announcement.
Scott keeps open the possibility that the DSA travelers will change their tune after these “entitled wannabe Marxists who rage about oppression while they live comfortably under the benefits of free-market democracy in America talk to the Cuban people who have spent more than 60 years being brutally oppressed by the communist regime in Havana.”
“They should meet with the families of Cubans who have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured by the Castro regime and hear the stories of those who have been denied basic human rights show the world the truth about the regime’s atrocities,” the senator added.
In the Florida House of Representatives, Republican Rep. David Borrero exclusively told The Daily Signal that he “would be interested in introducing legislation in the state house to strip them of their non-profit status.”
“Any organization that aims to send material aid to Cuba, which is a designated state sponsor of terrorism, in an effort to thwart U.S. diplomatic relations should be placed under great scrutiny and investigated,” Borrero said.
The Florida House member added that the DSA’s trip boils down to an effort to “aid and abet this regime’s oppression of the Cuban people and human rights violations.”
Borrero called for the DSA to be held accountable, whether through revisiting their nonprofit status or other means.
Over the phone, Borrero also claimed that Democrats who refuse to condemn the DSA’s embrace of Cuba are “accomplices” to the regime.
“They will say they are anti-communist and anti-socialist, but when you call out a certain program or organization, they won’t condemn it,” Borrero said of Democrats. “And when you ask them to condemn communism, they won’t do it.”
As for those on the left that try to water down socialism with the label “democratic socialism,” Borrero said that “the notion that democracy and socialism can coexist is laughable.”
“Democracy is antithetical to socialism, because socialism destroys individual freedom and people’s right to self-determination,” he added.
Miguel Granda, the president of Miami Young Republicans, told The Daily Signal that “any organization that cozies itself up to a terrorist regime should be stripped of that status.”
“DSA is going to meet murderers,” Granda, whose parents escaped Cuba’s totalitarian regime in the 1960s, added.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]