Who enforces these "antitrust regulations"? A gutted "small" government?
> The tension between socialism and libertarianism in the US has ended up with kind of an anti-dialectic where we end up with the worst-of-both worlds
This is an interesting framing, because during the original rise of socialism in the mid 20th century, USA had an extremely productive dialectic of socialism+libertarianism (1930-1960). It was only after the capitalists took over again in the 70s, and pushed back against socialism, that things started to go south for the median American.
To say there is a significant component of socialism in today's USA is absurd, and demonstrates how foreign the concept of "socialism" has become. We are controlled by corporations and the corrupt politicians they manage. There is clearly NOT a dominant thread of "public servitude" that is required for a socially-oriented economy.