Via this über-good article from Submitted to a Candid World.
It's a bit too long as well as a bit too academic for you to send to your average far-right friend or confused moderate. But it does give you a concise education on the actual meaning of the word "socialism", it's historical uses (& mis-uses).
My favorite part is the enumeration of past president's (and other powerful politician's) nationalization of various private entities. The plum of that group is New York City's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's seizure of the subway system from New York Rapid Transit Corporation in 1938. The MTA is wholly owned by the government to this day and is the largest subway system in the world, measured by track mileage.
