'Merica!

I think in America, socialism and communism are seen as the same. That's from my UK perspective.

A huge part of America's success is often put down to their strong belief in capitalism and you can see that in its society with higher extremes of wealth compared to many other countries. While I'd like to be rich or middle class perhaps in America, if I had to be poor I'd rather be poor in many countries in Europe and a few other countries around the world.

Politicians in America are funded by the wealthy and corporations. A socialist would be politician who believes in higher taxes and wide distribution of wealth is not going to have any sort of campaign budget.

The one thing I've noticed about politicians though, left-wing or right-wing most are totally useless and corrupt worldwide. People who seek political power are rarely those of integrity or competence.

My idea for a government is a small body of decent fair minded people with integrity and give them the power to make choices for us but surround them with competent and skilled people in economics, manufacturing, finance, construction, social engineering etc who advise them.

Build a strong economic base for a country first (the hard bit) and then spend the money (the much easier bit).

Socialism has already existed in America long before Obama took office. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and the US military are socialist programs. Republicans have been using "socialism" as a soundbite without even considering what its true definition really is. So yeah, socialism is not anti-American at all.

It's difficult to answer that, because "socialism" is such a broad term with so many different meanings.

I would say that, at its core, socialism is about state control of the economy and society, and in that case, yes, socialism is un-American, since it is the antithesis of the "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" that were the founding ideals of the United States.

Of course, no government of the United States has actually cared about those ideals in the slightest and it's mostly got worse as time has gone on.

Well, as Kantor pointed out, a definition of socialism for us to go by would allow us to give a better answer. Although I more so feel that the term "Anti-American" is even more vague. So I'll just answer using my own definitions of both terms.

Yes. Freedom, and therefore capitalism, is what Americans feel makes their nation unique (even though the US is no longer the freest or most capitalistic nation). The US became the richest and most powerful nation from capitalism, even if that capitalism was not pure. These capitalistic ambitions a part of American culture, famously called "The American Dream."

US military is a socialist  program?

Communist states, dictatorships, kingdoms, corporatocracies and other more obscure political concepts may have benefits,  health services, pensions etc

Some might say equal access to health services would be the basis of socialist thinking, rather than a tiered system that means those at the bottom may get nothing and those at the top get fantastic health care and there is a sliding scale in between.

This.

The Founding Fathers definitely wanted to keep control away from the government and in the hands of the people because of their negative experience with government across the pond.

Now technically if the people decided to give their power back to the government, it would still be their choice. An idiotic choice in a lot of circumstances, but a choice none the less.

What an incredibly dumb question to ask. And I'm sorry, the people answering "yes" are also dumb. Saying that any political philosophy short of facism is "unamerican" or "anti-american", goes against the very point and foundation of this country. Where people could be FREE to believe and practice whatever they wished. That didn't just mean religion, it also meant social and political beliefs.

I am a "Democratic Socialist", and I'm proud of that. I don't make a big deal of it, but I'm also not ashamed of it, and why should I be? To me, "socialism" means caring more about the overall good of the people, than the good of the government or big business. To me, "socialism" merely means caring about more than just yourself or your immediate circle. And I think quite a LOT of Americans have a very skewed and incorrect view of what socialism as a philosophy actually is. It has nothing to do with politics. It is a set of socio-economic ideals and values.

So stating that "socialism is anti-American", is outright stupidity. I'm sorry if that upsets some people, but it's the truth. People in America are allowed to believe and think however the fuck they want, and the only thing that would be TRULY "anti-American", would be someone actively trying to deny people that right.

Personally. I'm not a socialist. I personally believe that people should be able to do what they want to do as long as it's not hurting anyone else. So even though I sit on the opposite end of the spectrum as most American socialists, I don't think their opinions are stupid our wrong. It's not anti-american in any way.

Yes.

Its what people run from to come here.

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." -Ronald Regan