Are you a socialist? A conservative? A fascist? See why.

Some Democrats call themselves “Democratic Socialists.” Most Republicans call themselves “conservatives.”  Very few voters understand such terms as “communism, socialism, capitalism, or any other “ism,” but many argue strongly that they are, or are not, one.

Comparison of five systems

Notice that three “isms,” socialism,” “democratic socialism” and “national socialism” all use the word “socialism,’ but are markedly different.

Further, the countries that claim to use those systems, don’t. Even further, countries that don’t use those systems are accused of using them.

For instance, the U.S. Republican Party, claims to be “conservative” but isn’t, Republicans also claim that the Democrats’ “Democratic Socialism” is communism, but isn’t.

Theoretical definitions;

1. Capitalism is based on private ownership of productive assets and production largely directed by markets and profit incentives.

The United States is predominantly capitalist, although it has substantial government involvement through Social Security, Medicare, public education, regulation, and other programs. Capitalism does not mean the absence of government.

2. Socialism is a broad family of ideas advocating social ownership or democratic control of productive resources.

Some socialists favor centralized public ownership. Others favor worker-owned cooperatives and market competition. A government providing healthcare or retirement benefits does not, by itself, make its economy socialist. Those programs can exist within capitalism.

3. Communism is the envisioned final stage of social development: a classless society without a state, where productive resources are held in common. The Soviet Union and Maoist China called themselves communist, but they operated as highly centralized, one-party states with extensive state ownership and planning.

The theoretical definition of communism differs substantially from the historical governments that claimed to pursue it.

4. Democratic socialism seeks to achieve socialist economic arrangements through democratic means while preserving political freedoms.

They generally advocate stronger worker control, reduced economic inequality, and greater public ownership in important sectors. Democratic socialism is often confused with social democracy.

– Democratic socialism seeks a fundamentally more socially owned or democratically controlled economy.
– Social democracy generally retains capitalism while using taxes, public services, labor protections, and redistribution to reduce inequality.

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are better described as capitalist social democracies, not fully socialist economies.

5. National Socialism was the ideology of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party, and an extreme version of fascism.

Despite including the word “socialism,” Nazism did not seek economic equality or worker control of industry.

The Nazi government preserved substantial private ownership while directing economic activity toward rearmament, territorial expansion, and the regime’s political objectives. It destroyed independent labor unions and persecuted socialists and communists.

Its defining features were racial nationalism, dictatorship, antisemitism, militarism, and the pursuit of a racially defined national community. The word “socialism” in the party’s name is misleading.

The U.S., under Donald Trump, trends toward Hitler’s national socialism’s emphasis on authoritarianism and a white Christion national identity.

Politicians use socialism, communism, and fascism as interchangeable insults. The most useful questions are not merely what a government calls itself, but who owns productive assets, who controls their use, who benefits from their output, and whether citizens can freely replace their rulers.

Is Trump a Conservative?

Trump and his followers claim to be conservatives. His Supreme Court appointees also claim to be conservatives. But they all are far from conservatives. Traditional conservatives often emphasize constitutional restraints, institutional continuity, free trade, fiscal restraint, and predictable government.

Trump’s political approach has included challenges to established institutions, extensive tariffs, executive-power expansion, and efforts to overturn the certified results of the 2020 presidential election — the opposite of conservatism.

Conservatives usually argue that overturning established norms is fundamentally inconsistent with conservatism. This creates an apparent paradox: A political movement can call itself conservative while seeking radical changes to the institutions it governs.

Political scientists sometimes describe such movements as radical right or national populist, rather than conservative.

Among the systems we’ve discussed, Trumpism has substantially more in common with authoritarian nationalism and fascist political traditions than with communism, democratic socialism, or liberal democratic capitalism as political philosophies.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell