Why does the United States fear turning into a social democratic nation?

[Bob B]

The issue here is, quite simply, that prevailing political attitudes in the USA are different to those in Australia. Australia and Europe are both generally more left-leaning than the USA, which is very right-wing by western standards. The liberal/national coalition is considered centre-right in Australia, whereas it would be considered left-wing in the USA (the US democrats are more right-wing than the coalition).

For instance, in Australia, universal healthcare is considered to be a basic essential service that the government should provide (if Medicare was revoked in Australia, there would be an uproar). In the USA, not so much. As a friend of mine once put it: in the USA, universal healthcare is viewed as "you pay for everyone else" whereas to us it's "everyone else pays for you".

Basically, different attitudes. People in Australia have different expectations from the government, and different expectations as to what they should contribute, to those in the USA.