This isn't unlike post-Nazi Germany where the people abandoned democratic principles and voted in Hitler.
Agree with all you said, except I don't believe quite half the electorate truly wants socialism.
My guess is the number of hard-Leftists who really want socialism is "only" about 20%. Maybe 25%.
The other 25%-26% of the electorate who voted for Obama were:
- naive college kids who want to be hip
- blacks who vote only on the basis of racial solidarity
- lazy unemployed whites who have gotten used to the federal benefit gravy train
- Hispanics rewarding Obama for his pandering, including his unconstitutional gift to 800,000 "dreamers" last June (Obama's ace-in-the-hole)
- a lot of befuddled white women who just "felt bad" for Obama, didn't want to refuse him a "second chance," and bought into the blame-Bush lies