I have been seeing discussion that the “other side” is struggling with a split between Leftists and Liberals.
Leftists are actual communists. They see class warfare. They see an economic struggle. They want to overturn the system.
Liberals are do-gooders who like to feel smug and morally superior. They are ashamed of nothing and offended by everything. They care about Trans stuff. They care about Ukraine, Palestine, Venezuela, etc. They care about recycling. They care about a lot of stuff which is just fun to complain about.
Now, a fair number of ordinary Americans know that wages have been flat for a long time, and that inflation has made many essential parts of life extremely expensive. This is the “affordability” problem. There is at least some possibility that some of these ordinary Americans could be attracted to genuine Leftist ideas — let’s overturn the system! Class warfare! Economic struggle! The Leftists see this possibility and would like to take advantage of it by appealing to ordinary Americans.
Meanwhile, a very large number of ordinary Americans see the Liberal craziness (the “Karen” problem, or the “woke college student” problem) and the ordinary people say “I hate those people. I hate the Left.”
This divide helps us. But if the blue-haired crazy Liberals fade away, the communist Leftists are likely to get stronger.
Now the Left is ditching the term “liberal”, they can say the quiet part out loud now.
As you suggest, leftists are true communists, basically losers that don't want to work but want significant government benefits. Liberals, think teachers. They are well above average wealth but have been indoctrinated by the union propaganda - they think and say they hate capitalism and want a fairer society, but individually do not want to pay more in taxes because it hurts their nice lifestyle. They think they are smart, but are driven by emotions rather than facts and data - which is why they would vote for AOC over a JD Vance or Rubio in a heartbeat and think AOC was qualified to lead the world.