Democrats are Socialists! They are Communists!

We are all familiar with this slur the right uses. We can go blue in the face explaining why this is wrong. However, this is not about political science. This is about social order. First, let me go back to the Russian Revolution and the American Revolution. They are very different beasts. If you add the French Revolution this will make sense.

The American Revolution was a civil war, that did not change the social order. Yes, it has some changes in the sense that the founding documents potentially opened the way to equality. However, the compromises over slavery were a poison pill that would lead to a second civil war. Over the course of the twentieth century, we saw a further opening of American society, which loosened the strictures of caste.

Both the French and Russian revolutions were peasant revolts. Both overturned the ancient order, and both killed their ruling families. The Russian Revolution came with the baggage of ideological beliefs that included equality. So did the French Revolution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was just as aspirational as the idea that we all needed access to food, shelter, medical care. But both did something else. Both became quite dystopian in short order.

We may argue about this and whether human nature can allow for more equality, or not. But this is not the point of…