Democratic Socialism: What is it and is there a difference between that and Social Democracy?
What is Democratic Socialism?
Democratic Socialism like the name implies is an off-shoot of Socialist theory, Democratic Socialism unlike many forms of Socialism doesn't use the state apparatus and isn't in favour of a Totalitarian state like the USSR or China. Instead like Social Democrats they tend to use the State Apparatus like the legal system and the welfare state to make life easier on the working classes, this is where the single-payer and the free college comes from, its a means of taking the weight off the working classes shoulders. But Single-payer and Free college isn't all what Democratic Socialists are, since if that were all they are they wouldn't be at all different from Social Democrats like the Labour Party in the UK and to some degree the Liberal Party of Canada.
Democratic Socialism also commonly fights for more Union rights and Worker's rights overall, Democratic Socialists want to bring Trade and industrial unions off of the back burner of Politics and into the ring, they want to make sure that Unions have more of a say in regards to laws that affect the mass majority of workers. Now some would say "unions aren't democratic" i assume to mean they aren't a Democratically elected body, and in the wide scheme of things this would in some Conservative context's be correct. However, Unions are one of the most Democratic ways for Workers to get involved in Politics especially whilst Democratic Socialists are in charge, they can stand as a mediator between the working class and the upper class and find a good compromise between the two. Problem is, in the States it is abundantly clear that Unions and the working class are at a loss because not only do Unions practically not exist but they don't have a seat at the table at all, all tax and welfare decisions are made by politicians who are quite honest about the fact that their pockets are lined by corporate money and not small donations, thus they don't serve to mediate a conversation between the upper and lower classes but to assume what the working class can deal with and line the pockets of their benefactors.
The Key Ideological difference between Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists, is 99% of self-described Democratic Socialists eventually want to get rid of Capitalism. Whilst Social Democrats simply fulfil the basic needs of the workers as a means of appeasing them so that they don't revolt against the upper classes. Democratic Socialists serve the working classes because most Democratic Socialists ARE working class or have been at the bottom of the food chain at some point or another.
Democratic Socialists in the USA will use the Nordic model as an example of Socialist-esk policy working not because that's the exact model they want to bring to the states but a model they can take policy ideas from and work them into an American system, they want to BUILD ON what Nordic countries have done. Nordic Countries are not Socialist and any Democrat or Republican telling you that hasn't looked at the over-arching Economy of those countries, just because a country has a really good welfare state doesn't mean that it is Socialist, it just means that it has a safety-net programme.
What does Democratic Socialism mean for the United States?
The key thing that these Progressives/Democratic Socialists are trying to do in the United States is change the DNC (Democratic National Congress). The DNC has made it abundantly clear that they are in the pockets of big business just as much as a the Republicans are, this was shown when the odds were stacked against Bernie Sanders getting the Presidential Candidacy for the Democrats back in 2016. What a lot of Progressive Democrats are realising is the best way to create a change in American politics isn't to change the Republican side or the way that the Elections work but changing the Democrats so that the Democrats actually stand as a party of the working people. Something that they haven't been for a very very long time.