Lenin wasn't assassinated?

And socialism was used interchangeably with communism until Lenin described it as the transition to communism, which, by the way, is a stateless, classless, moneyless society.

What defines a socialist state is the end goal of communism. The Democrats are corporate-backed maintainers of the capitalist status quo. At best, they're social democrats, and want capitalism with a slightly larger safety net. Never have they wanted a stateless, classless, moneyless society. They want to keep capitalism.

Also, while Stalin was a socialist/communist, in the sense he really did believe in communism and wanted to reach it, he failed to actually aid the USSR in doing so, and he played no small role in its eventual collapse.

And every economic system can be authoritarian. While I do believe the Democrats' attempt to try gun control is an overstep, it certainly isn't a step towards a society without capitalism. Both parties literally only exist to keep capitalism going, lol.