I've been watching Seinfeld—what a window into another time. The episode above premiered in May, 1991.

In the scene above, Kramer is trying to convince Jerry he should let a guy illegally wire his apartment for free cable. Jerry isn't sure the guy is resourceful enough to get it done. Always the salesman, Kramer assures Jerry he knows many happy "customers", but also, the guy must be tough because

He escaped from the gulag!

Wikipedia has a good article:

English-language speakers also use the word "gulag" to refer to any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union, including camps which existed in post-Stalin times. The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners.

I'm not sure what the Kramers of today would use, but it wouldn't be the Soviet Union. And so the democratic socialists are getting traction.

Ronald Regan famously called the Soviet Union, "the focus of evil in the modern world". That sentiment just doesn't resonate anymore.