Today's democrats are often called "socialists" by their opposition, and though that is probably true, what today's progressive liberals truly are is something worse. These people are statists, which are people who believe that only the ruling elite understand how a society should be run, and that it is up to them to engineer that society so that eventually it becomes a peaceful utopia equipped with equality, fairness, and a share-and-share alike attitude. Heaven on Earth, I suppose you could say.
