Point well taken. However, you can put all the footnotes and caveats you want, and they will mean nothing for the storm troopers stalking the ideological enemies and forcing the party line down people's throats.
For that matter, read Milan Kundera, _The Joke_ - an insight into Stalinist mentality. The story line is like this: the protagonist is university student in Prague in 1947 and a party activist; his girlfriend is sent to the party training camp and writes him letters full of political slogans (optimism was the buzzwod those days). He replies by sending, as a joke, a postcard that reads "optimism is the opium of the masses, long live Trotsky." The postcard is intercepted by the political officer (privately, the protagonist's friend) who ignores the protagonist's pleads (and other obvious signs) that this was only a joke, and initiated a trial that lead to the protagonist's expulsion from the university and time in a penal military unit.
GOP storm troopers (college Republicans, neo-cons) fit that picture perfectly. In fact, GOP is the bastion of Stalinist mentality.
wojtek