As the democratic election process in the United States of America draws to an initial close – it is almost finished but for the shouting, the court cases, and the official recognition of the election’s correctness – there is still one word, one concept left hanging in the air which has been a spectre over every election campaign since at least the Second World War: Socialism. The Republican groups have touted the idea of Socialism as being the great bugbear of the western world, and especially the United States, whereby everything will be taken away from the people, and they will have no democracy left over. It has been thrown…