"Lavrenti Beria was one of the cruelest leaders in a regime known for its brutality. He first reached a position of power by working his way up the police organization in the Soviet republic of Georgia. In 1938, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin summoned him to Moscow to work as the deputy to the chief of the Soviet secret police (NKVD). Within months the chief had disappeared and Beria had replaced him. During the purges of the 1930s, many Soviet leaders issued lists of people they wanted arrested and shot, but Beria may have been the only one who personally got involved in torturing his victims. It is said that he invented the saying "Comrade, if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear," a line spoken with heavy irony by NKVD officers as they took political prisoners into custody during Stalin's purges."
This ain't the USSR. You don't get it.
That's my point.
A nation is not flag.
Nor is it a piece of land.
A nation is defined by its actions. The USSR, through its actions defined itself as an authoritarian nation: suppression of dissidents, restriction of movement, and a profoundly noticible lack of rights afforded its citizens, among other things.
In the USSR, there was no 4th Amendment, no rights against warrantless search and seizure. When in public, or anytime for that matter, when confronted by government officials for any reason, or no reason at all, Russians had to produce papers, answer questions, submit to searches. There was no right of refusal, and no recourse. Russians who didn't like it could try to leave.
If we behave in this manner we will be the same. Even if we still call it the USA. Even if "our guys" wear different uniforms, speak different languages, and like country music.
So you are right. This is not the USSR. It is the United States of America!
And in the United States of America we are most decidedly NOT detained by armed agents of the state absent probable cause or search warrant.
Defining characteristics make nations what they are. When we act like communists, we ARE communists.