the outcome of the election

[Chaerophon]

"was that Socialism is really not anywhere to be found in American politics."

Sure it is, you just aren't looking in the correct place.   

Medicaire.  Social Security. Two Socialistic tools we use. 

Ever heard of the Teamsters?  Alive and well, though there have been hard times for some unions lately.  Socialist organs of society, labor unions.

There is no significant Socialist party for the simple reason that the Democrats (and to acertain extent the Republicans, via labor legislation, for example)  had taken in such issues as are palatable enough for the nation who foughts, as its dire enemy

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The lack of what you seem to be referring to as Socialism in the US is, by and large, a good thing.  Lack of Socialism is not a defect of character, any more than lack of a moustache indicates ugliness.

YMMV where you live in the the utility of Socialism in the social and political milieu.

Occhi
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Let's not play word games. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties and the vast majority of Americans are dedicated to free enterprise liberalism. Sure, there are interventionist liberals in America, but at an official level, socialism does not exist. Unions fighting for workers rights are not 'socialist' tools, per se - as they exist in the U.S., they are an institutional part of liberal democracy that helps PREVENT socialism. Embedded liberalism was a necessary part of preventing undue distress among the working classes, and, I would argue, was in the greater interest of capitalism. Of all of the developed countries in the world, America is right at the bottom in terms of the concessions that capital was forced to give up to workers. This was a result of their relatively painless economic emergence from WWII vis a vis Europe and their role in reconstruction. Little compromise was necessary within the economy during the exagerrated boom of Fordism - at the time, America was alone in that social welfare did not require state intervention.

However, that's beside the point - don't point to the minimal social infrastructure that exists in America and somehow argue that America 'is kind of socialist'. Mainstream Americans fear socialist and social democratic thought - and ultimately government - more than any other national group in the developed world. It's a fact. I never said that it was a good thing or a bad thing - what I did say was that it has no ideological clout in American politics (as evidenced by the working class vote for Bush) and is, in fact, virtually non-existent.