When did socialism become a bad word?

With health insurance reform afoot and town hall meeting crying out their ignorance, the word socialism received a lot of press in the past few months. The first thought that comes to mind is an education video I watched in high school explaining the dangers of isms to cure what ails our society. Being that this is post World War 2 America and that we supposedly won against against communism and socialism during the cold war, it seems understandable that these failed governmental systems would be criticized.

Let us begin with a discussion of what socialism is before explaining why it failed when applied to real societies. Socialism is a economic and social organizational philosophy that proposes that resources in a society should be shared among all of its people. Resources are valued for their usefulness in society rather than a perceived worth to individuals. Socialism, by its nature, is anti-capitalist due to the view that capitalism allows for private monopolies and concentrated economic power.

There is no doubt that the old criticisms of capitalism are true. Before you start getting upset and crying that I'm a traitor, read on. Those who so whole heartedly and publicly scream that capitalism is the best and freest way of government are blind to the economic crisis this country has been in for a long time. The gap between the rich and the poor has grown so exponentially that it is possibly bigger than it was during the world depression of the 20th century. The middle class is disappearing, looking more and more like the lower economic class. This is in part due to rising health are costs, taxes and, lets face it, manipulation of economic power by the rich. All this is taking place before you account for racism, political corruption and the housing crisis of this past year.

What socialism aimed to fix was this poor distribution of power to the populace and to eradicate the rich-poor gap. Sounds like a good goal doesn't it? However, there are some problems with the redistribution of wealth. When socialism was first introduced, it was not in a vacuum. Societies adopting socialist principles had wealthy citizens as well as poor. While the poor were likely to be happy gaining a boost of status and a better standard of living, the rich were likely angry and resentful of their losses. In capitalist societies such as the US, we behave with an air of entitlement based on our labor. We work and make an income and feel entitled to the standard of living that income provides.

Socialist parties in the United States existed during the early 20th century. Blue collar unions and workers even nominated a Presidential candidate, Eugene V. Debs, who received quite a few presidential votes in 1912. The workers wanted better working conditions and better pay. They were the lower class, the people who would benefit most from socialist ideas. This was during a time when socialism was still considered a viable alternative to capitalism by a minority of Americans. So, what happened?

During the period of the World Wars, socialism caught on in Europe. In Russia, it mutated into Communism and a conglomeration of socialist states formed the Soviet Union with Russia at its heart. Socialism and fascism also took hold in Italy under Benito Mussolini. Here is where things went downhill. The fascists in Italy, especially those close with Mussolini, committed terrible acts of domestic spying and public executions of anyone considered a danger to the party. Most people today associate fascism and socialism together during this period, even though they were two separate entities. When people today think socialism, they think enemy. The mutation of socialism into communism during the world war period and the subsequent backlash against domestic communists in America is another cause of people's trepidation with socialist ideas.

In short, when people of this era think of socialism, it brings back memories of a time of fear and uncertainty in our history. It makes young voters think of the lessons they learned in school about the success of capitalism in America and the failure of both socialism and communism in Europe. How many of you remember the old animated short "Make Mine Freedom?" I think almost every student who went through an American public school has seen this short about the dangers of isms. It is extremely biased and does not tell the whole story of the vision for a Utopian society that was held by socialist philosophers. Anything that sounds like socialism, that can be accurately labeled as socialistic, does not stand a chance in today's America.