I suppose that Lenin, Stalin, Khruschev, and Brezhnev had
thought that the slavery, death, starvation, and torture
inherent in their rule were just wonderfully good things,

Slavery? I don't recall slavery being a part of the system. I thought that was
us up until the civil war. Death? Did capitalism cure death? Starvation? People
don't starve in other non-communist countries?


and that the freedom and high standard of living
here in the US were just about as bad an evil as anyone
could imagine..

Do you think the standard of living went down for the Russian working class
under communism? Were the peasants enjoying an American level of freedom and
standard of living when the Czars ruled Russia?