The Democratic Party has moved left a bit. Americans have moved left a lot.

While it's clearly true that the Democratic Party has been moving left for years, I think there's another factor to consider. Our educational system has been very effective at teaching generations of Americans to be skeptical of American ideals and more open to socialism and communism. Jimmy Carter is widely viewed as a relatively inconsequential president, but his creation of the Department of Education may be the most important and far-reaching action any president has taken in the past 50 years (with the possible exception of President Biden's immigration policies).

My point is that most policy goals of the modern Democratic Party would look very good to Democrats from 20 years ago, and 40 years ago. But Democrats then knew how unpopular such policies were, and had to pretend to be "New Democrats" or something—they were leftists who had to pretend to not believe in leftism.

The newfound dominance of DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) is a predictable consequence of our educational system's success. As the American voter moved left, the Democratic Party could move left a bit as well. Not much, but a bit. But more importantly, the party could be more open and honest about what its true intentions have always been.

Carter sought to use the educational system to teach children to believe in party ideology. Biden sought to use immigration policies to import a new voting block that already believes in party ideology. Both were successful. Now the Democrats can say what they really mean. They've built a voting base that agrees with them. So now they can pursue their goals openly.

Bernie Sanders, as a socialist, was always a fringe player in the Democratic Party. Now many influential Democrats are members of the Democratic Socialists of America.

I know what Democrats believe in, and what Democratic Socialists believe in (as Hillary Clinton accidentally acknowledged in her interviews during her presidential candidacy, they believe in the same things). But I was curious what beliefs the DSA publicly acknowledged. So I went to their website. (You should too.)

Note the happy, feel-good graphics.

Yikes. This is an organization that wants power, and they're willing to do anything to get it. And they are telling us that on their opening page. We should listen.

Anyway, check out some of the blurbs from their webpage:

Might as well get right to the point. Do you want to work? No? Well, vote for us! Simple! Everything will be free.

Note how they never address—anywhere—the most obvious question anyone would have: "If no one works, then who pays for all this?"

And look at how fast they move on from personal responsibilities to just doing whatever you want. It'll be idyllic!

How lovely the world would be, without the evil of capitalism:

I'm going to quote pretty liberally here (ha!), because I presume they want their ideas spread far and wide. They even have a print button at the top. But please go to the website and check it out for yourself. The whole thing is amazing. Here are a few more examples:

I argue that past Democrats would have agreed with most of this. Nearly all of it.

Imagine a prominent Democrat from 20 years ago, say Barack Obama. And a prominent Democrat from 40 years ago: Teddy Kennedy. What policy from the above list would they disagree with?

Now, in a campaign speech, they might distance themselves from some of these ideas. But I believe that they would reflexively agree with nearly everything the DSA is promoting today.

Previous Democrats might avoid being open about their leftist beliefs to avoid scaring off voters.

Today's Democrats can be more open about their leftism, because voters have moved left.

So we say the Democrat Party has moved left. And they probably have, to a degree. But it's the American people who have moved left. Way left. So now the rhetoric from the Democratic Party can be more honest. Now a typical Democrat sounds more like President Obama than Candidate Obama. And that sounds like a big difference.

But it's not really a difference in beliefs. It's a difference in honesty.

And this is just getting started. Wait 10 years. Or 20. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

I think Republicans are beginning to understand what they're up against. And their election of a firebrand like Trump shows that Republicans don't want to go down without a fight.

Or, more precisely, Republicans don't want to go down without openly addressing our disagreements. Trump is good at that. If he disagrees with you, he's very open about it. This, traditionally, is odd behavior for Republicans. George Bush would be appalled.

But the Democrats' newfound honesty may lead to reciprocal honesty from Republicans, which could be very healthy for America. There is hope.

But our educational system has done its job very well. This will be difficult to fix.

And Democrats apparently know it. They wouldn't be this honest unless they thought they couldn't lose. They wouldn't be this honest unless they thought they had already won. They think it's over. Maybe they're right.

I hope they're wrong. As President Trump often says, "We'll just have to see what happens..."