The socialist nature of public land, water and wildlife is precisely why they are criticized by “pro-free market” think-tanks and politicians, and why some states’ Republican Party platforms urged privatization until fierce opposition by hunters, anglers, bikers and hikers forced the privatizers into tactical retreat.

Our public schools and universities, and yes, our military, fire-fighting and police forces, are also socialist institutions. The people who staff and manage these government functions do not work for personal or company profit, but serve vital public interests. As a conservative think-tank director and Navy veteran said to me, “Of course the military’s socialist. We just don’t say it”.

Social Security and Medicare are government-mandated and managed programs which lifted senior citizens from the most poverty-prone age group to the least. When proposed, both were accurately labeled as socialism by critics. In 1961 Ronald Reagan famously attacked the proposed Medicare program as “socialized medicine” and an assault on Americans’ basic freedoms. He was right about the socialist part.