NEW YORK (Realist English). The American political system is undergoing a tectonic shift. On the left, democratic socialism is gaining ground — two‑thirds of Democrats now view socialist ideas favourably.
On the right, MAGA populism, while formally maintaining loyalty to capitalism (74% of Republican voters still support the capitalist system), has in practice buried the commitment to free markets that for decades was the ideological foundation of the Republican Party.
The result of these mirror processes is that Americans are left with less economic freedom and greater political homelessness. And this is despite the fact that 54% of Americans still view free‑market capitalism positively.
Who is wrong and in what way: two extremes, one mistake
| Ideology | Essence of the error | Consequences |
| Democratic Socialists | Call for transferring vast economic powers to the federal government at a time of record‑low public trust in Washington. Ignore Hayek’s warning that power over the entire economic system is “the most powerful of all conceivable monopolists.” | Socialist candidates are winning primaries (over 170 races in the 2026 cycle, with a win rate above 50%). Among young Democrats under 30, nearly 40% prefer socialists. |
| MAGA Populists | The Trump administration demonstrates unprecedented intervention: historic tariffs, pressure on the Federal Reserve, government stakes in private companies, active involvement in the crypto market. Vice President Vance openly distances himself from Milton Friedman, stating that the Republican economic programme is “much closer to Hamilton than to Friedman.” | The US has fallen to 22nd place in the Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index — nearly its lowest level in 30 years. |
Same myths – same mistakes
“One of the greatest ironies of our time is that the claims of economic decline that inspire both the MAGA movement and the democratic socialists are indistinguishable from each other,” writes Indianapolis Star columnist Michael J. Hicks.
Both camps argue that for more than half a century, wages have stagnated, younger generations are falling behind, and malicious economic forces are robbing families. These narratives, Hicks notes, are “poignant, easy to deliver, and completely false.” Wages and household incomes in the US have reached historic peaks — contrary to the rhetoric of decline from both flanks.
As The Wire notes, “the socialist surges in Democratic primaries and MAGA economic nationalism expose the same fundamental rift: neoliberalism’s inability to maintain broad legitimacy.” But diagnosing the error does not make the proposed cure correct. Both socialists and MAGA propose strengthening the state — just in different interests.
The paradox of economic liberalism: a political vacuum
True economic liberalism — the legacy of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises — finds itself in a political vacuum. Republicans under Trump have turned away from it in favour of mercantilism and industrial policy. Democrats, under pressure from socialists, have turned away from it in favour of state planning.
Yet both sides, paradoxically, converge on the key point: “the difference is only that liberals see the agency of individuals aggregated by markets, whereas socialists prefer the state.” But both erroneously perceive people as puppets pulled by the strings of market forces or state plans. Free enterprise, by contrast, gives people genuine agency — the ability to make their own decisions, not to be pawns in someone else’s economic game.
Two extremes, one outcome
The rise of democratic socialism on the left and MAGA populism on the right leaves Americans with a choice between two forms of statism. Socialists promise stability of prices, jobs and economic outcomes. MAGA promises national greatness through industrial policy and tariffs.
But both ideologies lead to the same destination: the expansion of state power, the reduction of economic freedom, and political polarisation that feeds on itself. “The more unpopular economic policy the Trump administration pursues, the more it pushes Democrats into a radical move in the opposite direction. And when Democrats run under the banner of democratic socialism, that…” — the cycle closes.
Open questions remain: how many more Americans who support free markets will be left without political representation? Can classical liberalism find a new voice in a political system where both major parties are moving toward statism? And most importantly — do the elites in Washington realise that the mirror extremes they are cultivating are leading the country not to greatness, but to the gradual loss of the very freedoms on which it was built?
For now, the 54% of Americans who believe in the free market are forced to choose between two parties that are methodically dismantling that market — each in its own way, but with equal zeal.
