Socialism can exist (and does) in democratic systems, with free elections, a free press, freedom of speech and religion, and a completely democratic bill of rights. Socialism simply involves doing something through public funding, which is to say...you pay the employees with a government paycheck. Socialism and capitalism can exist simultaneously and harmoniously in the same society, and they already DO...in every single existing democracy in the world! Any place that has public employees has (some) socialism.

To have socialism does NOT mean that everything in the country MUST BE socialist! It's an not exclusive proposition. Socialism exists side by side with capitalism with absolute ease, and that is totally normal in every organized modern society in the world.

Rarelamb, you are completely and absolutely wrong when you state that socialism is a form of tyranny. Where did you get such a stupid, ill-informed idea? Where do Americans get such ludicrous ideas? Do you think that just saying something totally ridiculous will work if you say it enough times?

Get real.

You know what is socialist? Every government-paid job from the federal down to the municipal level IS socialism. Every town has government paid jobs. Every nation does. Every city does. Those jobs are paid by our taxes. That includes federal tax, state tax, municipal tax, and sales tax.

If you want to get rid of all that socialism then you will have to disband the entire government, the armed forces, most of the educational system, most of the transportation system, much of the medical and science systems, your town councils, EVERYTHING that is not a privately-owned business!

And what will you have then? Anarchy and feudalism. You'll be back in the Dark Ages. You'll be serving your local warlord as a serf or a soldier and fending off attacks from the neighbouring warlord in the next town over the hill.

That's tyrrany, in the form of anarchy.

Tyrrany, my friend, can be accomplished equally well by either socialism OR capitalism. You just abolish freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of public assembly, and all the other rights enshrined in the US Constitution. With or without socialism, you control everything with an iron hand. With or without capitalism, you control everthing with an iron hand. Tyrrany has nothing to do with either socialism or capitalism, but it can be achieved using one, or the other, or both. Just abolish the Bill of Rights, run everything by brute force through your paid death squads, and you have tyrrany.

Capitalists do it. Socialists do it. But it is not "socialism". Socialism is a neutral economic mechanism, not a moral order.