Looking for what is best for my country

Too many people find the idea of socialism as just a black or white, left wing or right wing issue, when in fact, in our America, it has been a much more complicated question. If I were to be asked to support a program that tried to create a financial equality for each and every one of us in America by dividing our financial worth equally among each and every American citizen, I would, of course, reject the concept. 
 
But America has never been a nation that saw the latter concept as worthy of fulfilling. On the other hand, we have always been a country that asked for each and every one of us to join in with each other to deal with the challenges we face. And how have we done this. By creating tax programs through our federal and state systems to pay for what we consider worthy of keeping us strong.
 
Consider the programs that have been created in our country that are supported by public tax funds. We have our military force, our local police and fire departments, Social Security and Medicare for our senior citizens, our local, state and federal highway systems created to repair our roads and bridges throughout our country, our public school systems, court systems and prisons. 
 
Now, it is true that at certain times during our nation’s history, as for instance during our World War Two challenge, the wealthiest Americans were required to pay a higher percentage of their earnings for federal taxes than were the lower and middle classes, but if one looks at the history of that time, they will find that the wealthy remained rich and the nation as a whole did much better than they would have if this policy had not been implemented.
 
What all of the above points to, in my opinion, is that my country has a mixed economic system of capitalism and socialism which has always worked to our benefit. And I confess that I believe we would do ourselves well as a nation if we took one additional step and created a universal health plan for each and every American. If we are providing roads and bridges throughout our country to allow for one and all of us to be able to travel with the least amount of risk to every part of our country, then we would also do well to provide each and every one of our citizens with the ability to see a physician for preventive medical care and for whenever an illness appeared to be ready to attack an individual.
 
To those in our political world in America who continue to use the word “socialism” as a pejorative comment, I would ask you to cease your attempts to muddy the water of politics and instead, to speak truth to what our country is and always has been. We are a mixed economic system and our job is to elect people in our democracy to work honestly and with integrity for the people and to spend our public funds wisely. Yes we have had our problems and challenges and public office holders who have dealt with our system more for themselves than for us as a whole, but we need to remain a mixed economic system and, as citizens, we need to stay involved in making certain that we choose the best people to run our nation and to make the necessary changes when we have chosen the wrong people to be in charge.