I escaped communism. America must not ignore the urgent warning signs

A Colombian immigrant and United States citizen, who witnessed the violence of the communist FARC insurgency in her homeland, warns that America must take seriously the growing appeal of socialism and communism. Recent polling has revealed a troubling trend: only one in three Americans hold a positive view of capitalism, whilst Democratic Socialist candidates continue winning elections, creating a dangerous gap between public preferences for free enterprise and apparent openness to socialist politics.

The author emphasises that communism and socialism are not separate ideologies but two stages of the same system, as communist founders themselves acknowledged. Whilst Americans favour free enterprise (81% approval) and small business (95% approval) over capitalism broadly (54%), the historical record of communism is unambiguous: an estimated 100 million deaths under communist regimes across Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Africa and South America, and every communist state forced to build barriers like the Iron Curtain to prevent people from escaping. She argues that communism's appeal stems from accurately diagnosing genuine pain in modern American capitalism—particularly large corporations' dominance—but it offers false solutions that have historically eliminated freedom rather than expanded it.