I'm actually legitimately surprised at how many people are scared of socialism. Canada has a lot of socialist policies, and we do just fine (in fact I would argue our systems are better than the US').

I've noticed people also tend to link socialist policies with outright communism, which doesn't make a lick of sense. Just because a policy is changed to be more socialist doesn't mean your country is going to be Soviet Russia tommorrow.

Keep in mind some rather large differences:
Canada has a population 1/10th the size of America.
Canada also doesn't have nearly as many immigrants coming to it.
Canada is not $17 Trillion in debt.
Such policies may work fine in Canada, Norway, or Denmark, but America is the third most populous country in the world. Many of us fear socialism not necessarily from the idea of losing rights and freedom (though that is always somewhat present in the dialogue), it's more a matter of the Government overstretching itself and spending so much that it overtaxes the citizens, thus stagnating or ruining the economy.