Gyroscopic Investing

The Socialist Party of America had suffered setbacks during and after World War I, when many of its leaders and members were arrested or deported during the Red Scare and others left to form the American Communist Party. The party suffered another major blow in 1926 when the charismatic leader Eugene V. Debs died. In the 1932 presidential election Norman M. Thomas was the party’s nominee. By the middle of that year 13 million Americans were out of work, and dissatisfaction with President Herbert Hoover was growing. In the election, which Hoover lost to the Democratic nominee, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas garnered almost 900,000 votes. The official platform of the Socialist Party is excerpted below. After 1932, Roosevelt’s New Deal convinced many Socialist Party supporters to shift their allegiance to the Democratic Party. By the 1936 election, the Socialists had lost much of their national momentum, although the party remained powerful in some northeastern cities.

http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/wps/media/ ... _d075.html

Yep. Those evil socialists...
In fairness some of these proposals were not and are not a good idea. But most in some form or other, have over time been accepted and are not controversial today.

I think that's sort of the point--that much of the old socialist party's platform has actually been implemented in some form or another.