Why has socialism and libertarianism not been acceptable ideologies in America?

Answer 1

Socialism and Libertarianism are relatively two extremes of the political spectrum, socialism being left and libertarianism being right. Socialism seeks absolute equality of the individual from the state. This meaning that the government decides who should get the wealth of the country usually by taking money from the upper-class rich part of the countries economic class, and giving it to the lower-class poorer people. This idea is fundamentally unsound with American's because it has never worked in the history of the world and led to the collapse of many nations, most notably the former Soviet Union in the Cold War. For example, you cannot have a Doctor making the same amount of money as a fast food worker. Why? Because then no one will strive to become a doctor because there is no incentive. Libertarianism was the basic foundation of the United States very early on. Libertarianism calls for absolute minimum government control over the people and some Libertarians even believe in no government at all. Government has since expanded since the country's founding and Libertarianism has since lost much of it's popularity as the people have generally blamed the government of not regulating the nations economy properly as a result of the current economic recession. Americans constantly debate the role of government to this day. The left arguing for more government, and the right arguing for less. Thus both left and right extremes have not been acceptable.