They're feeling their oats and testing the waters.
They're not testing the waters; they're going the full Gulag.
What I find funny and sad at the same time is that children are not taught communism was tried early on in this country, by none other than the Puritans in Massachusetts, and that it was a colossal failure.
http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/three.htmlThe Pilgrims were on the left wing of the movement. These were the followers of a man named Robert Browne, and they viewed the Church of England as an impure church. The Pilgrims believed further association with this tainted church would jeopardize their souls, and therefore it was the duty of the Christian to withdraw from this corrupt institution. So they separated (hence the nick-name "separatists") themselves from "the Harlot of Babylon" as they sometimes referred to the established church.
...
The Pilgrims practiced a strict communism. Their model was the early Christian communities written about in the Book of Acts. In keeping with their lack of emphasis on clergy, they did not have pastor first decade of existence.
The Pilgrims found out real quick what a failure communism was (even before the term was invented). Their community farming had all the hallmarks of the collective, where everybody received food for unequal labor. Those who didn't work as hard received the same food allotment as those who did work hard tilling and tending the fields, so finally those who did work hard became disgusted at the inequity of it all and stopped working so hard; the colony almost died of starvation (shades of the Soviet Union after agriculture was collectivized; farm production dropped drastically, leading to starvation which killed millions and which was all part of the plan). The collective farming philosophy in the colony was soon scrapped, and people began to be rewarded with -- literally -- the fruits of their labor. Those who didn't farm as diligently as they should have had to rely on the kindness of their neighbors to survive, becoming the very first charity cases in what would become the United States.
Just another bit of US History the progressives have thrown down the memory hole. Definitely doesn't fit the 'the collective is good' narrative.
