Marx and Lenin used to cheer for the “heightening of the contradictions” of capitalism. The socialists in northwest Washington, D.C., on Monday night stretched contradictions to the ceiling. But the contradictions were not those of the capitalist system but those of contemporary American socialism.

At the peak moment of the climactic rally for “The Road to the Green New Deal,” the first real standing ovation came in response to the demand by a fairly standard Democratic senator: “Give us some of that socialism.”