That’s been their direction since FDR. The only argument has been “how fast?”. And far too often the Republicans join in to say “yes, but maybe a bit slower”.
Socialism is Communism for morons.
Until the late 1960s, "liberals" were mostly of the New Deal type, e.g. Harry Truman to Hubert Humphrey - you may agree or disagree with them on economic issues, but they were still mostly sane, and not so different from Pro-New Deal Republicans like Eisenhower and Nixon. It was only with the start of the counter-culture and various racial identity movements (disguised as "Civil Rights") that New Deal liberalism started to slowly but surely be replaced by "Progressive" outright leftism, until by about 2000 the "Progressives" (and opportunists who pander to them, e.g. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden) completely took over the party.