Stella Morabito uses a Federalist column to wrap up her cautionary tale of the way in which communism swallows up an otherwise free society.

My goal is simply to build some sort of a reference list that helps identify with some specificity the conditions through which totalitarianism can root itself into an otherwise free society. My hope is that we might be better able to see—then work to remove and reverse—some of the roadblocks to freedom that lead us, unwittingly or otherwise, into communism’s path of human cruelty and evil.

Phase 4: Taking Over the Institutions of Free Society

A free society has numerous and diverse institutions. Aside from the political and the military, there are economic, social, and cultural institutions that allow for a vibrant social life and the cross-pollination of ideas. A communist society, on the other hand, cannot allow any institution to be autonomous. They all must be absorbed by the state and serve the state. …

… Phase 5: Forcing Conformity

This is the phase in which people start waking up—late—to the many deceptions on the road to totalitarianism. This would include many who actually bought into the lies. When a free person actually sees what the enforcement of conformity looks and feels like, he or she starts to reassess and perhaps switch sides. This is why the enforcement is ironclad, fast, and furious. …

… Phase 6: Final Solutions

Communists, like Nazis and other totalitarians, will never give up power without a fight. This is argument enough for not allowing their foot into the door in the first place. Despite all of the mockeries of anti-communism that come out of the media and pop culture, the reality is that communism’s history is bloody because it is in a constant fight against people’s right to live freely.