1/ When I was young and we were protesting the Vietnam war etc., there was a sense that the Democratic Party was the establishment arm of the counterculture.

That sense was never correct though (news paper from 1933)

You apparently don’t realize that Social Security was an idea that came from the Socialist Party.

The way you do "comebacks" is very defensive. It's like you aren't interested in looking at the complexities of an issue if you can point to one good thing that the thing you are defending is linked to, and that's very disappointing