What's wrong with Socialism, Mr. McCain?

I'm not talking about Communism or Marxism or Leninism or Maoism. But seriously, what's wrong with a few social democratic reforms, akin to what works in nearly every other major industrialized democracy?

First of all, Barack Obama's proposals don't amount to anything close to "socialism"--- whatever that even means in 2008. Here's Steve Coll in The New Yorker:

Obama and McCain disagree about what the top federal-tax rates on individual income, corporate profits, and capital gains should be. The two candidates do not disagree on the principle of progressive taxation—McCain might be sympathetic to a flat tax, but he has not come out for one; presumably, he is influenced by the fact that a progressive system, in which the rich pay proportionately more than the poor, is more popular politically than a flat tax would be. Within the progressive system that they agree on, Obama thinks the top rates should be higher than McCain thinks they should be. In the case of the top federal-income-tax rate, the difference between them is not very large—Obama wants to go up from Bush’s thirty-five per cent top rate to Clinton’s top rate, a little over thirty-nine per cent. This is the change Obama was discussing with Joe Wurzelbacher, the unlicensed contractor who has become known as Joe the Plumber. Obama’s plan means that even for the richest of filers, the difference between his tax system and McCain’s concerns approximately $45,000 in additional taxes for every $1 million wealthy filers earn in income after they reach the highest possible bracket. That’s enough to buy a small B.M.W., yes, but in the great scheme of things, this does not seem to qualify as an argument about socialism.

At any rate, if Barack Obama's tax plan is evidence of a "socialist" society, then so is Social Security. And so is Medicare. And so is the Post Office. And Amtrak. And, I guess, NPR could be called "state-run media." For that matter, these days, Wall Street could be called "state-run financial markets," at least in the short term.

If McCain were willing to honestly lay out true orthodox conservative ideology--- eliminating all entitlements, leaving health care to the free market, cutting capital gains taxes--- then we could have a conversation about the merits of global economic philosophy. (For the record, ours is a mixed economy.) He won't do that, of course, so it's nothing but empty rhetoric.