Most Americans seem to not understand what socialism is, and do not appreciate that Nazi Germany was a socialist state. Here is an article that discusses this issue. I like the suggestion for changing the American terms of Conservative and Liberal to Individualist and Statist. That is a much better description of the core beliefs of the two groups. The so-called liberals are not liberal, and are in fact for big government. The Conservatives are actually conservative in terms of American experience in that they want to preserve the individualism of the founding fathers, but in the rest of the world this individualism is regarded as being liberal. Here is the article:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_socialism_matters_1.html