What is the meaning of the term 'radical'?

There has been much discussion in the past few weeks regarding democratic socialism, what with several self-proclaimed Democratic Socialists winning their primaries, most notably with Ocasio-Cortez's big upset in New York. The progressive movement has finally gotten it's fair share in prime time during an election season. However, along with it came much confusion.

On Fox News, Tucker Carlson opened his segment on the topic with the headline, "The Radical Left: Socialism Goes Mainstream" and went on to say that Democratic Socialists "support socialism; state ownership that includes health care, technology and manufacturing." Ben Shapiro one-upped Carlson on The Ben Shapiro Show, bluntly calling Ocasio-Cortez "a radical, insane person," among other things.

It's worth mentioning that labels don't really matter. What one is referred to isn't of utmost importance; rather, the issues that the candidate champions is what really matters. As far as I know, Ocasio-Cortez isn't making the means of production public - she will, however, fight for a $15 minimum wage and Medicare for all. To be fair, her calls to abolish ICE haven't quite found the nod of approval from the majority of Americans, nevertheless, Medicare for all and a $15 minimum wage have: according to recent polls, 52 percent of Americans support a $15 minimum wage, and 59 percent support Medicare for all. Truly, the parameters of what is considered to be "radical" have radically shifted.

What's more, President Donald Trump recently claimed in a tweet that he's "the most popular Republican in history of the party," ignoring the fact that the poll only includes Republicans. Among his constituency (all Americans), the president's current approval rating trails that of virtually all post-WW2 presidents. When an elected representative is woefully inept at representing the people, who does that make "a radical, insane person?"

Pedro Guizar

Streamwood