Why do people really think we are under communist rule?

It is indeed a dichotomy since in the USA we have "Socialism for the corporations and Capitalism for the people."

"They know not of what they speak".

I have lived in a Western European Social Democracy, visited the USSR and Western Europe which is more democratic than the USA. Have also lived in Spain under the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

The USA has a very long way to go before we approach anything like socialism or as you Oklahoma neighbors describe it COMMUNISM!

They aren't really a pure communist country anymore. They have introduced enough elements of capitalism to get something that works better than most authoritarian regimes. It also helps that Chinese people are culturally hard workers. But you have to consider that huge portions of China are rural, poor, and semi-autonomous, so the fact that the sweat shops in Chinese cities are profitable doesn't tell us much about the rest of the country.

Well, since there has never been a true communist country in the world, you drawing parallels to it makes it seem like what is not. If you are referring to Russia, that was a Stalinist country controlled by a totalitarian dictator who took principles of communism, lied to the people about what those principles really are, and transformed it into something it is not.

Addressing your point, it is kind of sad. It is kind of an overstatement by most people who think Obama is leading us socialism. People in this country simply think that anything Obama does is just another step to socialism. It isn't true, and Obama himself is very critical of socialism or communism, but people ignore this and point to Obama's policies that aren't to their liking.

What you don't get, with respect (and I mean that, thank you for your service if you are in the military), is that every step TOWARD socialism or communism is the wrong direction. There is no benefit to going toward either, for Republicans or true Democrats. Some of us Democrats still prize freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, etc., and frankly, as you have clearly put it, socialism and communism are steps away from that.

Yet millions of democrats are being used to bring about a socialist state.

We are not under socialist or communist rule. We are heading there, within YOUR lifetime.

No, thank you.

I know what you are talking about, I have family members who try to tell me the same thing. We don't have a Democracy as your fore fathers wrote it but we have the best government that money can buy.

Corporate republicans with conservative principles trying to maintain the thieving status quo counting on the noise level to confuse the sheep.

Communist rule isn't the only form of oppression.

Think about it. Do you seriously think communist happens overnight? Nooooo. It's a slow tricky process. First the gov. takes our health care, then our businesses, tells us what cars we can cannot buy etc.

Many think we are getting there. How do you think communist and or socialist rule starts? With government taking over private businesses, then the financial institutions, next will be health care. Sound familiar?

People who have never experienced communist rule have no idea what it entails. We are not even close, and we're not headed in that direction either (despite what Fox News might try to tell us).