IS SOCIALISM DEATHLESS?

There is a question I have been pondering the last couple of days. It centers around socialism. It is popular theory by many (espoused by President Bush and Rush Limbaugh, to name two) that democracy and freedom is a basic desire of all people, and given a choice, a chance at it, people will grab onto it, because it is a basic desire of all people. With democracy and true and complete freedom, comes capitalism.

If that is the case, my perplexity is this: Why does socialism continue to exist? Socialism has shown time after time, that it does not work. When one looks at what is going on in Latin America these days, what you see is countries with the freedom to vote sliding back into socialism (and worse yet, perhaps communism) by knowingly electing socialist leaders. Why?

Why would someone with a choice, choose socialism (or communism or Marxism for that matter) if we have this basic innate desire for freedom. Surely we are less free under socialism and communism since the government is much more controlling under this form of government.

Does our desire of "fairness" and "equality" overide our desires for complete individuality and freedoms? Do we have a basic desire to be "taken care of" that is stronger than our desire to be an individual and our desire to have complete freedom?

Today I stumbled across "Why Isn't Socialism Dead?" It said, in part:

"It may well be that socialism isn't dead because socialism cannot die. ....... [The] revolutionary [socialism] myth may, like religion, continue to thrive in "the profounder regions of our mental life," in those realms unreachable by mere reason and argument, where even a hundred proofs of failure are insufficient to wean us from those primordial illusions that we so badly wish to be true. Who doesn't want to see the wicked and the arrogant put in their place? Who among the downtrodden and the dispossessed can fail to be stirred by the promise of a world in which all men are equal, and each has what he needs?"

And later adds,

"Furthermore, as populism spreads, it is inevitable that the myth of socialism will gain in strength among the people who have the least cause to be happy with their place in the capitalist world-order, and who will naturally be overjoyed to put their faith in those who promise them a quick fix to their poverty and an end to their suffering."

It is worth reading the complete article. It did help put some things into perspective, but I am still not satisfied. Thoughts/articles anyone?