I think a lot of people misunderstand socialism. Socialism itself isn't neccesarily evil or detrimental to society. Its how its enforced that becomes the proble,. We have been a socialist country for well over a decade.
Building infrastructure is socialism, public schools are socialism, having a paid military is socialism and the list goes on and on. It depends on where you draw the line of what you believe socialism to be. Both dems and repubs believe in socialism of some degree.
I'm a libertarian so I don't really believe in any of the socialism programs, but the libertarians aren't for everybody.