I keep hearing Bill O'Reilly calling Bill Moyers a socialist. Those are fighting words where Moyers comes from (East Texas), so naturally I had to follow this link to a Moyers speech from Paul Stephens' always-interesting Montana Green Party Bulletin. Big quote:

"[Y]ou have to respect the conservatives for their successful strategy in gaining control of the national agenda. Their stated and open aim is to change how America is governed – to strip from government all its functions except those that reward their rich and privileged benefactors. They are quite candid about it, even acknowledging their mean spirit in accomplishing it. Their leading strategist in Washington – the same Grover Norquist has famously said he wants to shrink the government down to the size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. More recently, in commenting on the fiscal crisis in the states and its affect on schools and poor people, Norquist said, “I hope one of them” one of the states “goes bankrupt.” So much for compassionate conservatism. But at least Norquist says what he means and means what he says. The White House pursues the same homicidal dream without saying so. Instead of shrinking down the government, they’re filling the bathtub with so much debt that it floods the house, water-logs the economy, and washes away services for decades that have lifted millions of Americans out of destitution and into the middle-class. And what happens once the public’s property has been flooded? Privatize it. Sell it at a discounted rate to the corporations.

"It is the most radical assault on the notion of one nation, indivisible, that has occurred in our lifetime."

A socialist might say that, I suppose, but it's more in keeping with the odd populist streak that runs through East Texas politics. These are, in most respects, profoundly conservative people, suspicious of government, unwilling to give or accept a handout. But populism runs deep in the red-dirt country, and it helped keep Democrats in power for a century after Reconstruction.