Okay, I usually try to avoid this type of click bait. But here goes.
In 1961 America faced a mortal threat; calls for a national health insurance program known as MEDICARE. Today Republicans routinely accuse Dems of planning to cut the programs funding.
But the political strategy- claiming that any attempt to strengthen the social safety net will put us on the slippery slope to totalitariansim still lives on.
Medicare didn't destroy freedom. Scaremongering over socialism is both silly and dishonest. But it is politically effective. Which is why the OP is asking the question in the first place.
Still, voters overwhelming support the policies of American socialists. Including medicare for everyone and higher taxes on the wealthy. Which is why Trump in his state of the union message forgo the usual fearmongering about scary brown people and started warning about "socialism." As if Leon Trotsky were knocking at our door. Believe me, the commies are not coming to confiscate your pick-up trucks.