This will be a consequential year. Americans will celebrate the 250th birthday of the country, commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and decide who should represent us in Congress, a contest that will kickstart the 2028 presidential race in earnest.

As the year opens, the question about socialism in America has taken on heightened importance. On Jan. 1, New York City and Seattle inaugurated socialist mayors. One day later, the United States captured the socialist dictator of Venezuela, who hollowed out a once-ascendant regional economy.  Americans must now decide whether socialism is in fact a path worthy of our next chapter.

Few ideas are as distinctly American, or as consistently misunderstood, as rugged individualism. It is often caricatured as selfishness or social indifference. In reality, it is the moral engine that powered the American Century, delivering unprecedented gains in life expectancy, prosperity, innovation, and opportunities for people across all races, classes, and creeds.

From the early 20th century to the present, societies organized around individual liberty, private enterprise, and........

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