There are a lot of folks advocating communism who seem to lack any historical context.

Do you have a historical context? Are you comparing the economic system of communism against capitalism? Or are you comparing nations who claimed to be communist but were actually authoritarian governments against democratic republics? Remember, North Korea calls themselves a Democratic Republic, names don’t mean a lot.

Do we have any historical context for a democratic republic with a communist economic system?

Here’s part of the Wikipedia definition of communism:

A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state (or nation state).

I’m unaware of a society like that.