Political rhetoric is just a social construct. You go to college, and the profs tell you about non-existent categorical terms with no reference to any objective reality.
The idea of the American Constitution was an agreement about government at the federal level that the various States would find tolerable. Most of the people then involved saw the example of British cartelism as something they wished to prevent. So they conspired to create a system that would limit the possibilities of a powerful central government that could be taken over by a few elites and commercial interests..... so they wished.
The idea of communism was invented by British gentry to try to divert the common folk from the idea of people actually having their own way in their government.
Communism has always been a damn lie used to consolidate power in the name of ideals of a fake utopia promising every over-the-rainbow dream people have ever been beguiled to imagine would be a better world. But it has never been a system that actually lived up to such dreams, and rather has given people the worst performance in human history for making life better.
Elites, cartelists, power- and wealth-seeking management wonks love the power and opportunity it gives them.
The current balance of influence in the Democratic Party has become, at least rhetorically, all-inclusive of terms like socialism and communism, and today there is no actual understanding of the original intent of the American Constitution.
After all, committed Liars are always changing the meanings of the words they use.
