The blueprint for a conservative takeover of both parties was presented in the Powell memo in '71. Lewis Powell wrote it to the US Chamber of Commerce as a suggested course of action to resist the movements most active in undermining the rule of corporations and the investment class in America's economy.

The checkboxes it suggested are now complete and any benefit that anyone not in the elite minority of the wealthy might receive is villified as "socialism". This is reinforced by politicians on the relative "left" that self-identify as socialists when they would barely rise to the level of "moderate right" in any other civilized wealthy nation. (Looking at you Bernie). The fact that those countries are now kicking our collective asses in most metrics that matter to their populations is completely lost on Americans who are happy to revel in their delusions of superiority.