Unity and Continuity in Men and Nations

If America became a socialist state and was entirely opposed to capitalism, would it still be America? The Polish writer, Jozef Mackiewicz, once asserted: "There is no Polish state in the guise of the Polish People's Republic. The Polish People's Republic is not a continuation of the history of Poland but a continuation of the history of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution." [P. 136, The Triumph of Provocation]. What happens when we radically transform a country or a person? Would a socialist America still be America? And could this process occur without violence? I recently rediscovered a fascinating discourse on unity...