What do you think people would experience in a communist take-over?

Also, how do you think people would survive in terms of food heat, etc?

This is my favorite question today, so I'm going to give a long answer. Good things and bad things would happen, and many things that Americans would find puzzling would happen as well. I don't advocate communism, but it is much les tolerant of many ideas and lifestyles than the American government is. Feel free to add anything you think I may have missed.

In the event of a Soviet takeover of the United States:

There would be a new flag. I actually like the one they used in Red Dawn, which appears to be based on the flag of Morrocco instead of the old Soviet, Cuban, or American flags. It was a nice creative touch.

Mind you this is not an exhaustive list.

People to be harassed and/or rounded up by the regime would include but not be limited to

Communists would go after leaders of the various Evangelical, LDS, and Presbyterian Churches, as well as the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention. SBC would not be dismantled, but would become a state church with different emphasis. These groups have ideologies which are fundamentally incompatible and even contradictory with communist teachings. Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and predominantly black churches would probably survive as patsies, their religious leaders being hand picked by the regime.

If you were a member of the NRA, John Birch Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, AA, the gay rights movement, the Salvation Army, Civil Air Patrol, JROTC, or if you ever attended a Protestant high school, expect a knock at your door. Treatment will probably vary between individuals. It will not matter in the least if you are liberal or conservative, because communists like and dislike features of both. Don't expect any different treatment based on your party affiliation, but I have to say that I would not want to be a part of the Libertarian movement and have to explain my politics to the KGB.

Also expect to face especially intense scrutiny if you are involved in the scouting movement, summer camp counseling, the survivalist movement, professional hunting, or are an outdoor sports enthusiast (rock climber, mountain biker, camper, etc. The NKVD often rounded these people up when they invaded Eastern Europe because they could aid refugees and partisans. The REI set would not be seen as stylish to the military government.

If you are a skinhead, a klansman, a collector of Nazi memorabilia, a strikebreaker or mercenary in a private security firm, a member of a drug cartel, or if you regularly hang with such people then you should immediately run. You will be spared the pretenses of a gulag and be killed outright if you are found. I would not expect much more for members of the mafia, street gangs, biker gangs, or many imprisoned criminals. Many of these people will be lined up against the wall and shot as well. Anybody involved in drug distribution can pretty much kiss their behind goodbye. Anybody related to such people might get billed for the bullet Chinese style.

Expect to see Ivan Bisky, Michael Milken, Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Skilling, and other stock scammers shot on live TV. Nothing will save these "enemies of the people".

Foreign born people of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Cuban, Russian, German, Polish, and Ukrainian descent would be regarded with particular suspicion. Former soviet POWs might be imprisoned or shot as war criminals or cowards. The descendants of these groups would definitely not be able to get decent jobs or hold public office. In the 1980s, many of these people would have fought against soviet and/or communist forces or have had ties to such people at some point. American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and working class whites would generally face less scrutiny. The communist government would look for support primarily among these groups of people. Upper class people, if they could not be turned, would be killed or expelled. Middle class people would face intense surveillance and scrutiny as they are seen as most likely to organize resistance, but are still necessary for the proper function of society. It would be just like 1984 in this regard.

History would be taught very differently. Things you recognize as historical fact would take on new meanings. There would be a denunciation of many former political leaders, including many of the the founding fathers of the country. Some people like Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and Davy Crokett would probably be reenvisioned as national heroes in a more communist mold, where certain parts of history are emphasized and others are ignored. They would try to make the astronauts look like heroes, but I don't think that those guys would Al, go for it. MLK and WJ Bryan would be heavily "sanitized", and their stories perhaps unrecognizable. Upton Sinclair, Samuel Gompers, Jimmy Hoffa, John Reed, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony, and maybe Emma Goldman (but maybe not) would all become household names. These people would be among the faces on the new money along with Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other standard communist figures.

Villains would include Henry Clay Frick, Paul Revere, Jay Gould, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, WH Taft, GA Custer, Douglas MacArthur, GS Patton, Thomas Jefferson, Marquis de Lafayette, Teddy Roosevelt and especially anybody with any association at all to the old confederate government. The CSA is absolutely anathema to communist beliefs and sensibilities. Somebody wearing a confederate flag T-shirt would be taking their life into their own hands. The party would get you sooner or later.

Not to disparage our friends below the Mason-Dixon Line, but I think that many southerners would probably turn and collaborate in time. Societal changes would be much more radical there than in the north. They would become more dependent on the communist party as their society is more ravaged by it. At the same time, a not insignificant minority would become permanently opposed to the regime for all time. This is a typical pattern with the communists. People in the "blue counties" would find society changed less radically. Often they would be worse off, and would be less inclined to think the changes necessary. 25 years after the over through of the U.S. Government, expect to see many commissars with a Carolina drawl in NYC and LA.

Most importantly, who collaborates and who resists will be an individual choice. Sorry, but I do not see Americans as being especially prone to resist ideology and social control. I do not see a Stepan Bendera or Mujahedin streak in most of them. Like the Chinese and Germans of old, Americans accept a lot of bs from the parties in charge. Radical liberals in college become global warming deniers once they get a job at an oil company. Americans are very readily influenced by ideas on the radio and TV. This would likely continue. Expect the communists to coerce many trusted broadcasters, war heroes, and pundits, Petain style. Trust me, many of these people will collaborate once their famililies are threatened.

Looking at the list, you can see why communism never caught on with Americans. However, some time after the communists take over, expect widespread collaboration in the population as the streets are cleaned, homelessness and hunger disappear, crime largely evaporates, and employment rates rise. Education would largely improve, especially in the sciences, though some of it would become intolerably choked with rhetoric.

A communist takeover of the United States o America would become good for some groups and bad for others.

I would've just said look to the former Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) as an example. Former politicians, military personnel and anyone associated with the former government being rounded up sent to re-education camp and their property confiscated for the 'State'.

The Miniseries Amerika while slow and bits embellished does paint an interesting Soviet Occupied America

Basically the Soviets broke America into regions which were states bounded together to basically divide and conquer and by mini series end the soviets plan of breaking away these regions into separate nations started to come into effect.

Much of what was said in that really good post before was seen in the series such as

- The young generation who have been taught the old US was wrong and broken and with the help of the soviet union a newer way of life under communism was the way forward.

-The Parade which mixed in flags Lincoln and Lenin

Other interesting this in the series was
-Internal Exile basically people shifted in the area of a town and were stuck there for radical views etc

- The 'United Nations" occupying force which comprised of Warsaw Pact nations basically maintain security, border control and to run drills which is a guise to instil fear into the populace.

Either way it is like you said there is lots of bad and no doubt some good.

Universal healthcare.