Even before President Barack Obama took office, critics from John McCain to Joe the Plumber were painting him red. Amid the push for health-care reform, the attacks have intensified. Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer charged that Obama planned to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda" in a Sept. 8 back-to-school speech.
It's not the first time a phobia of socialism has made U.S. headlines. Since the early 20th century, few issues have stirred more political alarm. Facing a series of massive worker strikes in the years after the start of the Russian Revolution, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and...