Much ado about socialism

Everyone seems worked up about America's socialist moment. But most self-proclaimed socialists aren't even really socialists.

William Shakespeare takes his seat in the Senate.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

America is in the midst of a socialist moment. But is it even really socialist?

Many on the left are exhilarated over the sudden prominence of self-proclaimed democratic socialist politicians (Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and ideas (Medicare for all). And it's legitimately good to see the American left break free from the constraints it imposed on itself in the early 1990s, when, after a series of electoral defeats at the hands of a revivified Republican Party under Ronald Reagan, Democrats under Bill Clinton learned to moderate their hopes and accept a role as a party that fiddled at the edges of free-market capitalism while accepting its fundamental legitimacy as the organizing principle of political and social life.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.