The DSA Doesn’t Need To Hear From More Castro Victims

During a heated interview with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) co-chair Ashik Siddique over the party’s statement honoring Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, CNN’s Boris Sanchez suggested Siddique “have more conversations with folks who have fled that regime and what they think about these statements and the position of the DSA.”

It was an earnest ask, especially considering Sanchez’s own grandfather suffered political persecution under Castro. But it also underscored the one mistaken assumption that so many — on both the left and right — make, that is: if the DSA just knew a little bit more about Castro, or Karl Marx, or Marxism, or Maoism, so on and so forth then they’d become some variation of a capitalist, freedom-loving patriot.

But the socialists’ admiration for figures like Castro isn’t because they are ignorant of the death, repression, and political tyranny that results from socialism. Nor are they oblivious of the fact that hundreds have drowned while trying to flee Cuba on a raft to Florida. Socialists know of all these things — they just don’t mind them if they are the cost in order to amass political power.

In fact, we know for certain that DSA activists understand Castro’s record and simply don’t care since they are in pursuit of power.

Co-chair of the DSA’s Cuba Solidarity Working Group Danny Valdes wrote an op-ed in 2024 explaining his own grandfather was imprisoned for “anti-revolutionary activities” by Castro’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. Valdes acknowledges the pain and suffering his family endured and the “personal cost of Cuba’s history.” But rather than commit himself to fighting the political ideology that is responsible for his family’s suffering and the suffering of so many others, he said its important to look “beyond that grief” and then urged Cubans to join the DSA.

In other words, Valdes’ op-ed was the clearest answer to Sanchez’s request that the DSA speak to more survivors of Castro’s brutality. Valdes was raised by a survivor of Castro’s regime and yet he still pushes for socialism right here in the United States (in part because he claims that the reason Cuba is suffering today isn’t because of socialism, but because of America).

“There is no denying that the Cuban government has its shortcomings. Many Cubans are frustrated by over-bureaucratization and inefficient central planning, especially in agriculture. Recent protests have highlighted a growing impatience with these issues,” Valdes writes, before trying to claim that most of these problems are because of the U.S. embargo.

“During its over 60 years of operating as essentially a wartime government, Cuba has had to make decisions that might not have been made under less fraught circumstances. While we don’t have to agree with all of those decisions, it’s critical to understand them in context,” he continued.

Valdes acknowledges that Cuba is basically a hellscape before trying to “contextualize” it as merely a product of some other cause than socialism and that ultimately regardless of the cause, we “don’t have to agree with all of those decisions” and people should therefore support socialism.

It’s the same thing Siddique did in his interview with Sanchez. When Sanchez asked whether Cuba was a “beacon of democracy,” Siddique said he “wouldn’t say that” before pivoting to Cuba’s health care system. He didn’t dispute the dictatorship, he just said their health care system is the reward for the dictatorship and apparently that’s satisfactory for him.

These socialists know about the problems and failures of socialism. They know Castro was evil and a dictator. It just doesn’t matter enough to them because they have never cared about the “working people.” They care about exploiting workers to help them accrue power.

Socialists make their pursuit of power feel palatable by hiding behind promises of free health care, housing, or whatever other thing sounds good. Those promises are then used to justify any means to obtain them. If you have to jail opponents in pursuit of those things, or starve opponents, or even kill opponents in pursuit of a greater good, it’s justified.

So no, Boris Sanchez, it won’t matter if the DSA talks to a million survivors of socialism and communism. They know the history and the implications of that political ideology — and it doesn’t bother them.

What the DSA needs is a crushing defeat. There is no sharing a country with communists. Everything they believe in is antithetical to natural rights, to our Constitution, and to this republic. The longer Sanchez and people on the left and the right think we can ‘hear’ our way out of a socialist revolution, the more our chances diminish.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2