re: Commies, surrender, death tax - you have a way with words.
If I can't even call Maxine Waters a commie, then the word has, like so many others, been defined out of existence. There is not one issue on which she would disagree with a Marxist.
Maybe you missed the Newsweek cover story: "We're all socialists now." This from the same people who almost exploded with indignation when the word was used during the campaign.
Have you noticed that the Left has to continuously redefine the language to stay ahead of its own record? I'd bet that in ten years I won't be able to use the word "progressive." It'll be something else by then.