Readers Write: Democratic Socialists, immigration enforcement, choosing a college major, funding cuts

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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It’s time to declare the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) a political party. In the meantime, local and national Democratic Party entities should deny any candidate who accepts the DSA endorsement from running as a Democrat or receiving Democratic Party endorsement or funding.

The DSA platform says its adherents want to “deepen and strengthen democracy,” but by abolishing the Senate and Electoral College as they are “undemocratic” and by rewriting the Constitution because it is “ossified.”

The platform seeks to defund and disarm the police, nationalize industries and create an entirely new Constitution, yet somehow avoid the authoritarianism that has always arisen with communist/socialist regimes.

They can only do this, they say, from within the Democratic Party. Why? Because they know and are clear that third parties have no chance of winning in the United States.

It seems to me that if you want to take over a party, you are a party. The Dems lost the White House in 2024 because its platform was rooted in “progressive” dogma that pushed center and center-left voters toward the GOP slate. However, as much I want to like them, DSA mouthpieces Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders want to further this losing proposition; I don’t want kings on the right or the left.

The Democratic National Committee needs to figure out a more centrist platform on which to gain renewed, broad voter support from the center and center-left and defeat the awful notions of the MAGA GOP and the DSA. The first step is to identify the DSA as separate political party.

Daniel Patton, Minneapolis

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New York City last week had a less than 30% turnout in the Democratic Party mayoral primary. A Democratic Socialist won.

Does the Democratic National Committee (DNC) seriously think the entire country now embraces socialism as a result?

Last November, California voted down rent control, passed the toughest crime bill in decades with 71% of the vote, and defeated two far-left progressive district attorneys in Los Angeles and Oakland (a year after pushing out a progressive DA in San Francisco).

A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll (March 2025) stated that 71% of U.S. voters want the Democratic Party to nominate more moderate candidates.

And a recent poll by Pew Research indicated that, of nine U.S. political groups, the far/progressive left came in dead last with 6% support.

The Democratic primary victory by New York state assemblymember Zohran Mamdani is unique to New York City, and should not influence the national strategy of the DNC for the 2026 election.

Jim Piga, Mendota Heights

Minnesota saw an act of violence committed on representatives to both state legislative bodies, which left state House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband dead and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife wounded. The suspect in both of these shootings impersonated a police officer to catch his victims off-guard and evade arrest. In impersonating a police officer, the suspect took advantage of many people’s inherent trust of law enforcement.

At the same time, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are hiding their identities from the public by wearing face masks and refusing to identify themselves via assigned badge or identification numbers.

The violence in Minnesota represents a tragic and fatal example of why law enforcement must be identifiable to the public. Allowing members of ICE and DHS to continue to hide their identities from the public represents a clear threat to safety. Please contact your elected officials to ask that they introduce and support legislation to hold ICE and DHS to the same standards as every other major law enforcement organization.

Ann Erickson, St. Paul

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The plans for the detention center being prepared in Florida (“Alligator Alcatraz to hold deportees,” Nation & World, June 26), “surrounded by mosquito, python and alligator-filled swampland,” is inhumane. It is shameful PR and makes our country worse. The plans lack conscience. If you’re upset about money or jobs, think about who made and makes America great? To instill fear and choose evil has no place in civilized society.

Leona Wieland, Sartell, Minn.

The June 25 commentary by the University of Minnesota’s David M. Perry (“College students, go ahead and major in what you love”) was excellent and a personal delight to read. I’m writing to say that he is absolutely correct. It really works!

I entered the U in 1954 in the General College, then what was called the Interdepartmental Bachelor of Arts Degree program. I studied the credit equivalent of five majors. They helped me through careers in educational television, business and then nearly 30 years of counseling adult students in the development and completion of their Individualized Bachelor’s Degrees at Metropolitan State University.

More people ought to pursue their degrees in areas of their love and interest, rather than concentrating on specific career or job requirements. Society is constantly changing. Flexibility is important. Thanks for Perry’s article.

Carleton Brookins, St. Paul

Interesting, but typical, that the assistant principal from Bemidji quoted in a June 26 article would approve Medicaid cuts but oppose cuts to federal research funding because its research produced cutting-edge therapies that treated his wife’s metastatic lung cancer. (Star Tribune/Hubbard School Minnesota Poll: “State’s voters divided on big cuts,” front page.)

He stated that he was otherwise a conservative Republican. His take on this is typical of all conservatives: We want what we want and everyone else can pay for it, but we will not pay for anything that somebody else needs.

Does the word “selfishness” come to mind at all? This holds true for many aspects of spending and funding but especially in the fields of social and human services. What they don’t understand is that if the community as a whole is whole, then everyone is better off. It is as simple as that. Humanity, folks — love thy neighbor, help thy neighbor. Tomorrow may just be your turn to need this help.

Jan Bengtson, Buffalo

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I’m writing to express my continuing worry about the damage being done to the ability of historians — teachers, scholars, public historians, archivists, librarians — to do our work. As a professional historian I have worked extensively in the National Archives, in the Library of Congress, in the Smithsonian Archives, in the National Parks, with the National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Museum and Library Services. These are American treasures!

To see all of these organizations gutted, unfunded, discredited and even insulted is frightening at the least. More important, damaging these institutions harms the capacity of citizens to understand ourselves through our past and casts us into a harmful amnesia about the complexity of our country.

Annette Atkins, Minneapolis