Attempting to scrape the serial numbers off the origins of their philosophy has been pretty much a full-time job for the Left for the past half century.

They have been trying frantically to disconnect themselves from the creatures that their collectivist ideals have raised, and have done it with enough sleight of hand that it almost works. How many people are now convinced that Hitler and Marx were at opposite poles of the political spectrum? Trying to palm off Stalin and Hitler as men who think exactly like Ronald Reagan is ambitious, but not unusual.

Communists evolved into socialists, and then into the New Left. I think the most recent nom de plume is "progressive." They change their names as often as someone who writes bad checks, and for similar reasons.

Sadly, when they constantly promote policies where the State runs your life, few people bother to think about nations that were run that way, and what happened to them.

Socialism is the ownership of the individual by the collective. Hasn't changed since day one, and isn't likely to. The collective may be painted over as "the State," "The People," "Society," or something else, but it doesn't really matter in the end. Chains are chains.