<First of all, the two are not interchangeable.

If not, I'd love to hear the differences.

Secondly, promoting social programs is not the same as being a socialist.

Promoting the forced redistribution of wealth from one group of citizens to another for political goals, however well intentioned, is what I'm talking about. Over half of the entire annual Federal budget falls into this category. The mandatory spending in this nation--mostly money taken from one group of taxpayers and given to another, for no services rendered--has gone up 780 percent since 1960, in constant dollars.

If you're uncomfortable calling it socialism, since it does not involve actual state ownership of the means of production (just total control over it), then we can use the current warm fuzzy word, "progressive."

If you want a short exercise, list the major policies, goals, programs, recommended legislation, or platform planks of the Democratic Party that do not fall into the wealth redistribution category. For a good cause, of course.

If I were to call the Republicans crypto-Fascists, you would scream at me, and be justified.

Hell, I've been called a lot worse. I know what a Fascist is. Do you? If anything, the massive government control of our economic system is probably more Fascist than socialist.