You have the correct position on this matter. It looks like Webb, etc. may be new communists but they act like the communists of old, for despite the claims of how democratic democratic centralism was, in practice it
was top-down rule almost anywhere Leninists operated. I know his legacy was a mixed one and not all negative, but I think the part of his legacy that lasted was the authoritarian part. Of course, the tendency of those in power
regardless of ideology is to hold on to power and to use whatever means are at hand to stay on top. Greed and selfishness seem ineradicable from the human psyche and soul. Occasionally, a Mikhail Gorbachev pops up or a George Washington.
But they are the exception, not the rule throughout human history. I hope you prevail against all odds.