I am tired of hearing the Democratic Socialists of America described as “the progressive left.”

I am equally tired of hearing MAGA call them the “extreme left,” as though the DSA is simply the outer edge of the Democratic Party.

The DSA has become very good at taking causes Democrats have fought for generations and presenting them to younger Americans as though socialism discovered them.

I turned 70 this year. This past week, I went for a 21 mile bike ride.

I have been involved in Democratic politics since I was a high school congressional intern in the spring of 1973.

Strong unions. Better wages. Universal healthcare. Civil rights. Environmental protection. Progressive taxation. Campaign finance reform. Getting big money out of politics. Building a strong middle class.

I have heard Democrats fighting for those things for more than half a century.

After Watergate and Nixon, Democrats did not merely complain about corruption. They drove major reforms intended to curb the influence of big money, require disclosure and restore trust in government. The backlash against Watergate was so strong that many Republicans joined them.

Over the decades, Republicans repeatedly worked to undo those reforms while Democrats fought to preserve and strengthen them. Supreme Court decisions opened ever larger channels for wealthy individuals, corporations and political organizations to pour money into American elections.

Republicans spent decades attacking those reforms while Democrats defended them, and Supreme Court decisions gutted much of what the post Watergate reformers were trying to accomplish. MAGA has embraced and accelerated a political system dominated by enormous private wealth.

And that connects directly to an even larger problem.

America does not have a wealth creation problem. America has a wealth distribution problem.

Our economy creates astonishing wealth.

Corporate valuations rise by billions. The stock market creates enormous fortunes. Major shareholders can watch their net worth rise by amounts that would have seemed unimaginable a generation ago.

Somebody does the work.

Cuts the trees and mills the lumber.

Pumps the oil and natural gas from the ground.

Nearly every physical product begins with something harvested, mined or pumped from the earth. Petroleum itself becomes far more than energy. It becomes plastics,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)