There was a neoliberal consensus in place for a good three decades, and moderate Democrats were absolutely a part of that consensus group. Then the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath happened, and the consensus fell apart. That doesn’t mean neoliberalism went away immediately following the crisis. Neoliberalism was still the consensus among most elites, but in the general populace the consensus collapsed. The “silent majority” neoliberal middle shrunk, with some going further to the right and some going further to the left.

That’s essentially where we’ve been since: without a popular consensus. In the absence of a popular consensus, different ideological groups have been competing for control. Liberals, socialists, reactionaries, and even fascists, right libertarians and anarchists. But through it all, no real majority consensus has yet emerged. Trump has thrived in the absence of a consensus by leveraging the resentment of various groups to seize as much control as possible, and different groups, both foreign and domestic, have opportunitistically latched onto the Trump movement to try and get what they can. Trump has been a useful idiot for several disparate groups, that are not necessarily ideologically aligned.

We might be seeing a new majority consensus emerge, however. Maybe. It’s hard to say. But there are signs that things could be moving in that direction. But it’s not socialism, it’s good old fashioned, new deal, Keynesian social democracy. And a very, VERY watered down, pro-markets version of it, at that. America is such a conservative country that we can’t allow ourselves to look forward to new possibilities, only back to what’s already been done. We’re so backward that economic policies from the 1930s seem radical to us.

I dunno, that sounds pretty moderate to me.