There's the fairy tale communism Marx wrote about, and then there's things like Corporate communism, where hte "commune" isn't a thing created by the people, but for the people, I. e. Cuba, China, old Russia - where hte few control the many and there are only sate-approved ways of doing things. In the UNited States, beign a bogus "two party system," and where our president is not actually "elected" by the people (so long as an electoral gollege is in place the United States will never be a tru democracy, same applies to teh bogus, "two party system"). Seeing as how America's newspapers and radio stations and major broadcasters (i. e. networks) are in teh hands of 5 media companies, and seeing as how the era of the "ma and pa" stores have dwindled into oblivoin and small cities are little more than chain stores owned by a handful of conglomerates, and producs on shelves are mostly from giant companies (regional companies continue to slide into oblivion) - it is very much akin to what existed in communist countries.
When coporations liek Haliburton have such an obvious hand in foreign and domestic policy (see hurrican Katrina for more information) then "the state" is little mroe than a coporate tool, and any way you slice it, it's closer to the real world "communism" that actually exists, as opposed to the fat German blowhard idealist's little "manifesto" could ever be, especially in thsi day and age.
Live int he U. S. for the next year, Lotus Eater, and get back to me. Yo ucan try to apply what you observe through INTERNATIONAL NEWS, but unless you're in the thick of it, watching the bizarro world go down, then you're only on the outside looking in, and that's isn't always so eye-opening. Today, the U. S. A. is becoming the U. $. $. A. (tm).