Has the US elected a socialist?

[R1Geezer]

http://tinyurl.com/nedq8p

[KARL]

Sandy, the fundamental principle operating in modern USA is that it is every individual for himself, some call it extremist capitalism. Thus, everyone can get rich and/or become president (the American dream), but (unlike in Europe) restriction as to on whom people may tread in achieving their dream is minimal. Those who have "made it" have molded things over the past 230+ years bringing us to what to analysts seems a distortion of the aims and aspirations of the founders of the Republic. The public are so poorly versed in the facts (blame the education system, some say it is deliberately so) that they actually think all is as per the blueprint. For example, the religious overtones are a relatively recent development - originally the US was somewhat groundbreaking in writing in a separation of state and church and supposedly giving full freedom of religion (well, likely so long as it was Judeo-Christian). Today, each and every American is in competition with all the others, especially in the workplace (ruthless maneuvering in the workplace to generally "progress" is exceptionally fierce in US-run employment). It is understandable if any innate empathy/sympathy becomes eroded in the process. Americans are not bad people, just subject to a very degrading social environment, a form of dog-eat-dog mentality, but mostly "it has nothing to do with me" (as in many other places, except the starting position is more dire than in the rest of the "developed" world). The vast majority laps up what goes for fact around them. As anywhere else in the world, 90+ % of them are naturally decent people, they just don't know any better. Unfortunately, they have been persuaded not only to protect the status quo but also to fear knowledge of anything else (blinkering) and even convincing themselves that deviation from the status quo is treason and that non-Americans choosing non-American ways hate Americans.