This sort of symbolic kangaroo court is normative in leftist takeovers.
Yup. Suggested reading for everyone (since the homework has been done before, there's no need to reinvent the wheel):
Robert Conquest et al., What to Do When the Russians Come
It was originally written back in the Carter era, when the same crypto-Stalinist "progressives" were riding high and kicking the DoD apart, happily expecting Soviet tank columns to roll all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.