Essentially the vast majority of the Teabaggers are personally old enough to remember the Red Scare. They been propagandized for forty years to think that evil soviets = socialism. The younger generation, largely raised after St. Reagan single-handedly defeated the soviets (by arming the Mujahideen), and raised in a global word, haven’t been so conditioned.
Hence, when teabaggers (erroneously) ladle out the socialist tag to stir up fear and distrust, it falls on more objective ears. Ears that belong to head that has seen the upside of the European model and experienced the downside of capitalism rum amok wreaking havok on our economy (i.e. the 21st century).
This is not, in the slightest, to say that the social model is embraced, merely that one has to have more to their argument than calling someone a “socialist” before that argument resonates. So far, the Tea Party and its backers have utterly failed in this regard, which is why their average age is “retired”.
Robot Pirate Ninja 