Americans should not be falling for socialism, and certainly not for communism.
Not only does collectivist ideology carry one of the worst track records of any system in human history, but the founding ideals of this country are fundamentally antithetical to it. America was built on hard work, self-responsibility, and individualism, virtues that only ever mean something when a nation has to rely on them without a guarantee, without a safety net, without someone else's playbook to follow. Increasingly, modern society seems focused on something closer to the opposite: how much can be borrowed from future generations, and how many welfare programs and government pensions an entire life can be built around.
The shift is a damning indictment of American education, not only because it has failed to teach students history, but because it has failed just as badly to make any positive case for free markets at all. Rather than being taught as engines of economic growth, human progress, and moral good, free markets are instead taught as systems of exploitation, greed, and abuse. They are no longer presented as solutions. They are no longer credited for the progress they've produced. They are simply taught as a force to be overcome, as if America's original wager, that liberty was worth the uncertainty it came with, was a mistake.
Nowhere does that failure look more grim than beside someone who actually survived what collectivism becomes in practice.
Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution and author, confronted a member of the Democratic Socialists of America on Tuesday and reminded everyone exactly what that ideology leads to.
Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of communism, calls out NYC DSA Co-Chair:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 22, 2026
“When you put whatever adjectives in front of communism, in front of socialism, it doesn’t change its nature. It is still communism, it is still socialism...please read some history, learn history.” pic.twitter.com/cyrIYmWCin
"I want to say that when you put whatever adjectives in front of communism or in front of socialism, it doesn't change its nature," Van Fleet said. "It is still communism. It's still socialism. And you can say, 'Oh, the people want free stuff. Let's just have free stuff.' Remember, this country is built as a constitutional republic. Just because you and your friends want free stuff. And then we can just get free stuff. That's communism. And that never worked out."
"Eventually, in communism, things will run out quick enough so everybody end with nothing," she added. "And I was there, lived through it. So young people like you, please read some history."
History has already delivered its verdict on collectivism. The least that verdict deserves is acknowledgment, and a vow never to test it again. But acknowledging it is the easy part. Acting on it is where the United States keeps failing.
Too often, America forgets that it is not just a participant in this story, it is the pioneer of it. No nation on Earth has embraced free markets as fully, or as willingly, as the United States has. And that, in part, is exactly why Americans keep turning against them. There is no other country's history to consult, no completed experiment to point to. There is no way to look forward and know with certainty how the next wave of technology or economic change will ultimately benefit society, because no one has ever stood exactly where America stands now. All that's left to push forward with is fear, or trust, and lately, far too many Americans are choosing fear.
America has been here before, standing at the edge of something new and untested, with nothing to rely on but its own conviction. That is the actual American condition, and it always has been. Every generation that came before had just as little proof, and just as much fear, and chose to trust the free market, political freedom, and our Constitution anyway, and every generation that did emerged victorious.
The pioneers who built this country were never promised the outcome. They simply understood that the alternative history had already been tried, and it had already failed. That is still the only guarantee America has ever needed.