I’m not sure who the “you” is in the title, but yes, I am a socialist.

I want to abolish private property. I want every workplace to be run democratically. I want the people who produce the world’s wealth to enjoy the fruits of it. I want the wonders of productive technology to liberate us from work, as both Keynes and Marx predicted, instead of forcing us to continue to waste our lives producing ever greater fortunes that billionaires couldn’t spend in a hundred lifetimes.

I also support Bernie Sanders even though I think his platform is just capitalism+. He and AOC are social democrats or “FDR Democrats” at best. A more robust welfare state, tuition-free education and Medicare For All aren’t socialism, but they’re a start.

Still, I disagree with your point that these are just “tribal affiliations.” Even if many of the candidates support more or less the exact same policies, there are ideological differences. Sanders still views things within the framework of class conflict and that matters.

I used to balk at his use of the word “revolution”—revolution is not something that should come from the top—but I’m seeing it in action. Things are happening on the ground. The campaigns of Sanders and AOC have caused the Democratic Socialists of America’s membership to balloon from about 6,500 in 2012 to 60,000 today. It’s not hard to imagine that the organization will reach 80,000 or 100,000 by the end of 2020.

We’re putting our members to work building grassroots power at all levels—running candidates for city offices, forming unions, fighting for affordable housing—and all of this couldn’t take place without the rehabilitation of the word “socialism” at the top, even if its meaning is somewhat diluted.

So to summarize, yes, we are socialists, and electing Sanders isn’t the end but the beginning.