I was a political science minor in College, and I"m very politically active.... I know what socialism is, and the reason why Americans don't want it is that this is a very different culture to that of the EU. You are used to VERY strong central governments that have kept all power to themselves, including the ability to rebel, etc.... (see the 9th amendment)
The US was founded on the principle that the PEOPLE had the power, and that THEY allowed the government to have certain rights, under strict limits, not the other way around. Also, as this country is MUCH larger than any of the EU countries, our system was set up to give much more power to the state and local governments, rather than a central federal government (see the 10the amendment.)
Another aspect of American culture is that since we did not have hundreds of years of rule by royalty, our culture had that attitude that unless we voted for a specific law restricting something, then nobody could tell us not to do it. This is in sharp contrast to the EU tradition of broadly written "writs" which allowed local judges to make all sorts of capricious personal decisions about what was legal or not.
All of this added up to a culture which tends to embrace personal responsibility and personal reliance, without interference from a Government body. I personally think that this attitude of being free to build ones own life, without being overly burdened by government taking too much of the results of your own labours, or making arbitrary decisions about what you need in order to have a business (comparitive to the EU), is one of the reasons why the US is the world superpower.
I just typed this fast in the middle of a busy day, so please excuse typos and syntax problems.
