I think it's the mythologizing of "socialism". They've created a mythos in the minds of a lot of people that anything that could be considered a form of socialism is inherently evil. They promote the idea that anything that isn't private enterprise will take our freedoms away - not mentioning, of course, that mega-corporations also take away our freedoms. And also that "freedom" also sometimes means having a safety net. But they are able to fool a lot of people because they use a very effective propaganda machine (the US media), and they always have the "liberals" to blame when our quality of life suffers as a result of their policies and their behavior.