Social democracy allowed people the confidence, and built the class power, to put more radical things on the agenda. If we today in the United States cannot build working class power to get something like Medicare For All - how in the world are we going to get something like worker ownership of the means of production?

Jacobin's Bhaskar Sunkara explores a path to socialism in America - as capitalism collapses and pulls politics towards the right, the promise of a worker-driven, democratic society built on equality and justice can be won by a broad, working-class movement rallying around social democracy.

Bhaskar is author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality from Basic Books.