https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/american-socialism-is-the-worst
American socialism is a curious thing. While traditional socialism focuses on seizing the means of production, American socialism focuses on achieving an ambiguous “equality” through government interference.
Sanders hides the fact that socialism was once extremely critical of liberalism. He repeats the New Left’s argument in his speeches, but he renames the villain. He no longer condemns the handouts and loopholes that constitute state capitalism as “corporate liberalism,” but as “corporate socialism.” It’s a clever switch. Liberals who sympathize with Sanders do not realize that the essence of this argument is anti-liberal. The original argument attacked Roosevelt, the New Deal, and the Great Society. Americans calling themselves socialists today, who vehemently defend all three, have no idea that traditional socialism did not regard progressive liberalism as a friend. Yet by blurring the lines between the two, Sanders makes American socialism the heir to the progressive movement, making it impossible for contemporary, self-styled “progressive” politicians to disown it.
American socialism, however, broadens the scope. Sanders frequently defines his struggle as a fight against “oligarchy.” In his 2015 speech, he emphasized that elections are being bought and sold by moneyed interests, the bourgeoisie of the 21st century. This argument is common. One of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's most popular videos makes its point by having her role-play a corrupt politician.
Its open-ended struggle for a vague “equality” means American socialism can change its policies with alarming speed. Think of how quickly Sanders went from rejecting open borders as an unthinkable “Koch Brothers proposal” to campaigning for it himself. American socialism also has no qualms about bending policies to its revolutionary passion. Ocasio-Cortez’s erstwhile chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, disclosed that the real reason for the Green New Deal was not to save the environment. “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal,” he said, “is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all. Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.”
But regardless of how this bet plays out in 2020, the political theater of American socialism is deleterious to the institutions of the U.S. The theater’s moralized passion flames its revolutionary passion, firing up an assault on what remains of the nation's constitutional order. The assault increasingly takes the form of an argument that America's constitutional order is fundamentally opposed to equality, as well as to all the minorities on whose behalf American socialism claims to struggle. American socialism’s real enemy is not capitalism, but the Constitution.
