A Gallup poll conducted in August 2025 found that 66% of Democrats view socialism favorably, while only 42% of those same Democrats viewed capitalism favorably. At protests across American cities, demonstrators have carried Soviet flags, the hammer and sickle on red cloth, as symbols of resistance. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have built careers on the promise of “democratic socialism,” drawing crowds of young Americans who see that word not as a warning but as a hope.I am not going to answer them with statistics or economic theory. I am going to tell them about my grandfather, my father, and myself. Three generations. One system. One verdict.In the village of Bebnisi, in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, 14-year-old Shota Gelashvili had fallen asleep over his German language textbook. He had a test the next morning. The book lay open beside him in his bed.
At 2 in the morning, soldiers of the NKVD — the Soviet secret police — stood over the family in the darkness. The order was simple: dress quickly, make no sound, come with us. There was no time to gather belongings. The soldiers searched the room and pulled Shota’s German textbook from his bed. They passed it from hand to hand, then gave it to the commanding officer — as if a schoolboy’s grammar book confirmed the treason they already believed.
