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).
