One of the most effective things Biden said during the election: "I'm not a socialist." He didn't get lost in a vocabulary debate. He didn't pull back on any of his liberal policies. He just recognized that the word "socialism" plays poorly, and he rejected it. It's how you win.

Are you here to change America for the better, or are you here to win a vocabulary contest? Whenever the right is able to bait you into debating the definition of socialism, it means they're winning the political battle, even if you're winning the vocabulary contest.

The Republicans understand this. Whenever they want to implement conservative policies, they just frame it in a way that the middle likes and understands. They don't say "we're far right and we're going to make you like far right stuff too." That's never how you get a majority.

The easiest way to implement leftist policies is to convince people in the middle that you're not DANGEROUSLY far to the left while you're doing it, so they'll stick with you, and you keep a majority.

If you decide a vocabulary word is more important, you can't effect change.

Whatever you think of Bernie Sanders, he could be President right now if he'd never invoked the word "socialism." He could have promoted the exact same policies, and if he'd just kept the word "socialist" out of his mouth, he could have won.

If you're a leftist politician and you want to implement leftist policies, all you have to do is say "no I'm not a socialist" and then go right back to implementing your leftist policies. Then the republicans won't have anything to use against you, and you win.

Imagine if far right Republicans were foolish enough to actually call themselves "fascists" while trying to carry out a far right agenda. They'd never win anything, an they'd never achieve their policy goals. That's how foolish leftists are when they call themselves "socialists."

Are you here to win elections and create positive change, or are you here to win a dictionary battle and feel smart about it? Because you truly can't do both.