This is the rub. There's the DSA platform and then there's the issues that most people who label themselves democratic socialists today (Bernie, stands out) are running on. Agree that that ideological document is very different. That's not what people are running on.
2/ One of the best critiques (though it wasn't really necessarily a negative) during the 2016 campaign was that Bernie wasn't really a socialist in any historical or ideologically meaningful way. It was more that he'd made "socialism" his brand. In a way you could say ...
3/ it's similar to the way some corporations will pick up a defunct brand on the cheap, which still has some sizzle and ooomph, and repurpose it for their own ends. But most candidates and certainly many people I talk to when they say they are democratic socialists mean ...
4/ true universal health care, a much more robust labor movement, free college at state universities, etc. This is not really socialism, even though since Harrington's day and actually since much earlier, just what socialism is has been quite amorphous. Indeed, even ...
5/ Irving Howe's famous definition basically amounted to what's just and awesome. And Howe of course is like the ur-DSAer.
