I'd say he's illustrating the nuance intended by people who say communism has never been tried. On paper, both democracy and communism have been tried. In reality, both have been ham-strung by human greed, corruption, propaganda and good-old apathy.
In an academic setting where people are using precise terminology these nuances are worth debating and are important. But in a forum such as this one where it is clear what one means by “democracies” this is not appropriate. Clearly there is a distinction between Russia/China and the U.S./most of Europe in terms of freedom/elected representation where one side is called “democratic” and the other authoritarian. Pedantically quibbling over precise definitions is useless in this context.