You're thinking in binary of countries as either socialist or not socialist. Right-wingers don't care about "socialism" (and they certainly don't care about th

You're thinking in binary of countries as either socialist or not socialist. Right-wingers don't care about "socialism" (and they certainly don't care about the living standards in any of these countries). It's just a bugaboo, and a stand-in for the comparatively more micro-scale issues they do care about -- things like progressive taxes, rent control, or (domestic) business regulation generally; and of course welfare and entitlements (for persons less advantaged than themselves), generally. "If you're in favor of, or even not rapidly opposed to ('financial regulation','rent control','zoning',...) then to all intents and purposes, you are the walking reincarnation of Mao, Honecker and Chavez rolled together" is what they're really trying to say when they bring up this cold war stuff.