What the Republicans are doing is dishonest, a big fat fucking lie. The Democratic Party members for the most part, although embracing some social solutions, are a far cry from the traditional and usually disparaging label of "socialist". It's a lie. It's propaganda at its core.

Tell me where Nancy Pelosi would disagree substantially with a "traditional" socialist. On any issue. And Obama didn't exactly rise to prominence through a crowd of libertarians, either. I know damn well what "progressive" really means, and so do progressives when they aren't around the rest of us.

Liberals try to make the argument you're making above by essentially refusing to admit that "socialist" has any definition at all. A political movement that thinks that every important aspect of an economic system should be controlled by a central government authority is socialist. It doesn't mean crap who "owns" the means of production if the government runs or regulates every part of the process. There was a word for that kind of economic system once, but it got redefined out of existence, too.

Who's running the banking system now? Deciding things they used to decide for themselves? Who's running the car companies? The car finance companies? Who's going after the health care system, and has been drooling over the energy industry for years?

What the Democrats are doing right now exceeds some of the wildest dreams of the college socialists I used to know.