I think Churchill said that Democracy is the worst system of government on the planet, except for all the other options.
Call me a fool (really, please do) but I'm one of those people with three or four dictionaries on my shelf, and I tend to look stuff up. Below is from Webster's 11th.
Some definitions.
Dictionaries have a liberal bias, but still...
SOCIALISM
"A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."
Like Ford Motor Company, where the local community in Dearborn is obviously running the show. Not. OK, so we're not quite socialist in the US at this moment regarding car manufactoring.
COMMUNISM
"A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."
I don't own any of AIG or Citibank, though they seem to own large parts of the Congress, 'nuff said.
FACISM
"An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization... the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach." Note that I am NOT referencing Dick Cheney.
DEMOCRACY
"A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives"
We're not quite there yet, but of course this is who we are as a nation.
More power to us, we'll get there!