The return of McCarthyism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/spencer-bachus-socialists_n_185...
The thing I noticed is the poll that says barely half of the American public prefer capitalism to socialism, while one in five prefers socialism. Among Americans under 30, the division is almost even! (Remember 20 years ago when Robert Heilbroner was saying "Capitalism has won"?)
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Pure capitalism and pure socialism are both flawed...
Complete laissez-faire capitalism screws a lot of people over and basically lets the rich do whatever they want with no safeguards, while socialism without free enterprise creates a stagnant system where innovation is ignored. Thus, any good economy is going to incorporate elements of both capitalism and socialism - the key is to try and figure out how to get the best aspects of both systems while avoiding the worst aspects.
Of course, two things that a lot of people fail to realise is that:
a) Socialism is not the same thing as communism (several European countries have success with democratic socialism)
b) Communism and capitalism in some ways go hand in hand more then communism and democracy (one reason China is as intimidating as they are is that they combine the totalitarian tendencies of Stalin/Mao-style communism with the "make a profit regardless of anything else" attitude of a lot of giant corporations.
I wonder if Bachus et al are going to go after Vermont senator Bernie Sanders - after all, he actually admits to being a socialist...
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