Give them socialism or give them death

I’m very glad that the likes of Palin, Beck and others at Faux News have raised the spectre of "Socialism" after a long hiatus on the American political scene. Of course socialism is a "dirty" word here in the good ole "tea-bagger" USA. That was not the case in the first third of the 20th century when there was a vigorous Socialist/Communist movement in our country. And it’s obviously not the case in Europe, South America, Asia and the rest of the world, where socialist parties and movements rule or challenge the status quo. Even though "socialism" in Europe has preserved the capitalist system more than challenged it the concept has great prestige and resonance among the people at large. Unfortunately the left movement in our country was decapitated in the 1950s and has never fully recovered, in that fundamental critiques of our capitalist system are still verboten. So even though the right wings characterization of Obama as a "socialist" or "communist" is comical, in that most of his policies are to preserve the capitalist system under stress (much as FDR did, but with recycled moderate Republican rather than social democratic policies), it still puts socialism back on the map to be properly elucidated and understood by critics of the "system" whose critiques have been, to date, totally inchoate.