Well, the idea that socialism is bad came from the McCarthy Era (1950's), when there was a massive uprising of paranoia against the idea of Communist encroachment on the US, because of a communist speaker claiming that they could infiltrate the US, breed apathy and sow mistrust, and in all ways destroy any trust that a democracy had in its leadership. McCarthy undertook a hunt for anyone who was a communist, actually succeeding at having people arrested and jailed for being a part of this... and if you were a member of the Writers' Guild, you were automatically considered guilty.
The paranoia from that burned itself out when people started deciding that being a communist was just too much of a danger. Some used the word \"socialist\" to describe their communist leanings, dragging socialism into the mud with communism (because socialism is an integral part of communist theory, just as personal liability is integral to democracy).
This is all very meaningless today. I know communists, and I know socialists. Great folks, and we get along great so long as we don't talk politics in a \"my way is better than yours\" kind of context. But the idea is to generate more paranoia than rationality, but claiming that President Obama is the product of some kind of communist plot to overthrow the United States. Really, it's just masked racism, so far as I can tell... he's actually less of a socialist than his predecessors (especially those of his own party).
One thing is for sure... I wasn't impressed with Congress's antics in this regard.
