The emergence of the Democratic Socialists of America and their political victories, from New York City across the fruited plains of Michigan and Wisconsin, all the way to Colorado, strikes many as a new thing in U.S. politics.

Previous movements have, in fact, increased, sometimes significantly, the size and scope of government. But it has been their opponents who have accused them of “creeping socialism,” while advocates have avoided the S-word. 

How Pittsburgh became the early alarm bell for the DSA’s rise

America’s peak socialism — abandoned a century ago

Fauci’s cowardly Fifth Amendment evasion

Some major policies of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal — Social Security most of all — remain part of the fabric of American life, and elements of the social safety net have been expanded quietly but effectively enough that, as former Sen. Phil Gramm has argued, the government transfer payments have effectively equalized the incomes of those on the bottom 60% of the economic ladder.  

But virtually no attention, so far as I can see, has been paid to the period in U.S. history when the government took maximum control of the private-sector economy, including the dissemination of information and communication of opinion. 

That moment came more than 100 years ago, before the emergence not only of the internet, but also of radio and talking motion pictures. It lasted only briefly and........

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