It’s a good day for a brief reminder and explainer on the nature of the phrase “our Democracy.” I capitalize “Democracy” here advisedly, and you’ll understand why shortly.
You see, in Marx’s religion of Dialectical Materialism history progresses not along the one path among many, many possibilities, but along the singular path of Progress that is Historicism, or History with a capital “H.” In this matter Progress is assured, always heading in a specific direction, as the “spirit” of History has a will of its own driving in that direction. This singular path through time could be slowed by the actions of reactionaries, or sped along through the adoption of the mindset of the New Socialist Man, but it is inevitable.
Once the final stage of history is upon us in late-stage Socialism the eschaton will be immanentized, and the Absolute Spirit (the zeitgeist come self-aware and self-actualized) will rise as the deity of the perfected State which will in turn perfect society and each person — this is what Communism means (and why they’re technically correct that Communism has never been tried/achieved), it is the sixth and final stage of History. Communism is the utopia.
This perfection is marked by Liberation, and the absence of all hierarchy, as the perfection of mankind renders the coercive apparatus of the State redundant, and therefore the State naturally disappears as we enter an Eden of Anarchy. Under a system of no hierarchy, where people are not merely equal, but marked by total sameness, there is no one person holding any sway over any other.
Communism is all about Hobbesian power dynamics made occult, and it is, to the Communist, only once all hierarchy is dissolved thereby Liberating all mankind from all oppressive forces — once all people are not merely equal before the law but identical in every way — within the Communist utopia that real Democracy is possible.
You see, so long as any person can be said to hold a power imbalance over any other, they cannot be considered equally free to express their political will in an equally impactful manner. Therefore, so long as any person is richer than another, more popular than another, or more physically imposing than another real Democracy is simply not possible. This is the origin of the phrases “nobody is free until we are all free,” and “collective Liberation.”
Socialism is “fake it ‘til you make it” Communism. It’s the transition phase when things must be made to look like Communism by force before Communism can do it by default. They must make us all equalized across every conceivable dimension. This is where Communism always goes wrong and kills nearly everyone. This is what they mean when they say, “our Democracy is at risk.” They’re afraid their plan to impart sameness among us with the guns of government is meeting excessive resistance.