This is a point most miss. Many political figures avoid this topic. Even those that claim to value freedom. I think it is because they know that mentioning it erodes their power.

During the cold war Republicans build a massively centralize system while claiming to be anti communist. The truth is, some of the thought leaders of their movement were "former" communists. Actually they never fully rejected the idea of central planning. They just didn't take it as far as the USSR.

If they actually were intellectual convinced of the flaws in communism they would have realized that the USSR would fail under the weight of its own folly.