In 1958, Mao Zedong launched his Great Leap Forward, a massive push to transform China from an agricultural society to an industrial one, aiming to compete with the West. Mao's goal was to surpass British industrial output within 15 years, and that political goal took priority over even human lives.
Poor Chinese were moved into collectives that stripped them of private land, livestock, and tools. Farmers were forced into work building primitive steel furnaces while crops and livestock were neglected, and the government seized excess grain for export or urban stores. Less than a year after the Great Leap Forward began, China entered a two year period of famine, known as the Great Chinese Famine, that killed anywhere from 15 to 55 million people from starvation, malnutrition, illness, and violence.
In Cuba, Castro's revolution saw a collapse of Cuban society and the deaths of tens of thousands. Now, Cubans rely on the government for monthly food rations that provide just 7 pounds of rice, 1 pound of beans, ½ bottle of cooking oil, 1 daily bread roll (recently cut), small amounts of chicken, eggs, milk (prioritized for children), sugar, coffee, and soap/toiletries. It's estimated that these foodstuffs only provide 30 to 60 percent of a person's daily caloric needs.
In Russia, the communists took over in 1917 after deposing and later executing Tzar Nicholas II and his family. From 1917 to 1922, the Russian Civil War and subsequent Red Terror killed at least seven million people (some estimates are as high as 12 million). In 1921, the communists stole grain from rural farmers to feed the cities and the Volga Famine became the deadliest in European history at the time, killing at least five million. In the 1930s, Russia saw another famine that killed an additional three to five million people. The Great Purge in 1936 also ended the lives of at least two million Russians.
These numbers don't include those who were killed for fighting back against the communists, or the "crimes" of dissenting or speaking out against the various totalitarian regimes.
In short, communism is deadly, and socialism is simply its socially acceptable euphemism
Which is why I am appalled that Zohran Mamdani is now the Mayor-elect of New York. An avowed socialist, Mamdani is part of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which plans to introduce communism on these shores, and that includes the abolition of the family and of private property.
Mamdani promises to make things "free" or "cheaper" by skyrocketing tax rates and subsidizing housing and food, thereby masking the real costs until the economic realities of socialism can no longer be hidden by a nice smile and a funny campaign video. We've seen the rotten fruits of socialism already. It's the reason insurance premiums and college tuition are so expensive, and why the quality of those products is increasingly diminished.
But it's clear Mamdani falls in the "real socialism hasn't been tried yet" camp, because he thinks Republicans are afraid he'll deliver on his agenda.
MAMDANI: "What scares Republicans across the country is the fact that we will actually deliver on this agenda." pic.twitter.com/kPaf7GQZC7
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 5, 2025
And he's right, but not for the reasons he thinks.
As I illustrated above, "real socialism" has been tried, repeatedly, throughout human history for at least the last century. Time and again, it fails with deadly results.
In 1998, Venezuelans elected Hugo Chavez, who promised to end inequality, poverty, and corruption. Before Chavez took office, Venezuela was one of the richest nations in the world. From 1950 to 1980, Venezuela had a six percent average annual GDP growth, the oil boom of the 1970s generated $10-15 billion per year, and the middle class was roughly 60 percent of the population.
Today, at least 70 percent of Venezuelans live in poverty (some estimates say that number is as high as 90 percent) and millions have fled the country. CBS called it a "stunning reversal of fortune."
I call it inevitable. You do not tax, spend, or regulate your way to prosperity. Government "seizing the means of production" does not make everyone altruistic and wealthy. But it does make everyone equally miserable, equally poor, and the greatest equalizer of all: dead.
Socialism always ends up this way. History shows such an ideology brings nothing but death, destruction, and economic ruination whenever it's tried. We have no reason to believe New York will be any different. Zohran Mamdani hasn't figured out the "key" to trying "real socialism" because there is no such thing.
"Real" socialism is a failed ideology with a massive body count in its wake. But it's one the Democratic Party has clearly embraced.
And that should scare all of us.
