because they don't recognize that the fire department, public schools, roads, libraries are examples of working socialism in America. (Well, the schools are debatable as far as 'working'

And that socialism in medicine would allow the rich to pay so poor people aren't ruined by hospital fees.

In a fascinating book, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America by Kevin Kruse, the author goes into great detail on how Wall Street teamed up with Evangelicals after the crash to create resistance to the many efforts being made to reign in corporate power. None other than Billy Graham was at the heart of this movement. They created the "Prosperity" doctrine which said that if you had faith, you would be rich, and that if you were poor, it was your fault.

These Evangelicals also created the Socialism that Americans are so afraid of to this day. It was all a way to protect Wall Street when the public was so angry with how they had trashed the economy and destroyed so many lives.

The irony is, that even to this day Christians won't bother to find out what socialism really is. They hear the word and panic. But they only apply it to people they hate. Wall Street depends upon Evangelicals to keep going. Even after our last disaster, it's the Evangelicals that are defending them. When you're always afraid, it guess it makes you easy to control, and these people thrive on fear.

Because they fallaciously assume that democratic socialism and those darn commies are the same.

US is one of the most religious countries I've seen and that blinds a lot when it comes to understand political and /or moral questions outside the "comfort area". There are many other reasons also.

its a trigger word here

Americans were inoculated against socialism after the revolutionary war.
That shit will never work on us. A civil war would ensue before any change like that ever breaths.

There are those who think taxes should only go to building roads and walls and when your kid needs a heart transplant, or your aging parent is being mistreated by a nursing home, or stock brokers can cheat you out of your hard earned money, then go to the church and pray for charity.

I've been wondering the same thing. Even the mention of socialism sets a lot of them off.

I don't know what impact that would have on us. I claim ignorance.

I expect that firstly, it's a matter of education. The average citizen doesn't really understand the fundamentals of the myriad number of ideologies. Like most ideologies, socialism has a kind of sliding scale. Many countries use a great number of socialist ideas, such as publicly-funded healthcare.

As I understand it (and I know next to nothing about it), all publicly-funded efforts can be coloured as socialist. If that's actually the case, then the publicly-funded interstate system in the US is socialist.

As a Canadian, I'm super happy about the many socialist ideals that our country has embraced.

I expect that the US politicians have brainwashed the public into thinking that socialism is evil. In my opinion, the ideology can't be evil, but people sure can.