By Casey Harper

Socialism is cool again, haven’t you heard?

Remember that T-shirt with Che Guevara’s image back in the day? Or the picture of Fidel Castro in somebody’s dorm room? Castro destroyed Cuba so much that people drowned in the moat between the socialist island and the capitalist mainland. But never mind that! Coolness and vibes cannot be slowed down by economic data and history. In fact, math and history are very uncool, as you know. 

But here’s some math you might be interested in. Politico recently ran the headline: “Poll: Capitalism is out … and socialism is in,” which featured some Gallup numbers to back up the zeitgeist “vibes” around the rise of Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and of course, New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani (D). 

The poll found that Americans’ positive view of capitalism has declined to just 54% while the positive view of socialism has increased to 39%. In fact, 66% of Democrats now favor socialism, a 16% jump since 2010. Another survey found that young people — the eternal arbiters of “cool” — favor socialism more than the average American. A Cato/YouGov poll found that among those aged 30 and under, 62% favor socialism and 34% favor communism. Socialism is undoubtedly in style.

It’s worth noting that socialism isn’t popular because of what it is for as it is for what is against. High prices, corporate excess, student debt, health care costs, the seeming indifference of the ruling class — all understandable sources of frustration. Socialism excels at highlighting problems. Finding solutions? Not so much. Hating capitalism is en vogue, and in some cases understandable, which has in turn made socialism the hot new trend. But like so many trends, you end up looking back with regret. Mullets, jorts, need I say more? But trends have another quality about them. No matter how bad they are, they often end up coming back, socialism included. But instead of leaving you with some cringeworthy photos to look back on, socialism wrecks your country.

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly” Proverbs 26:11.

Consider North Korea and South Korea. One embraced a free market system, and the other embraced a government-controlled economy. One is starving, and one is prosperous. Or, closer to home, Venezuela, which was a wealthy country not long ago. Now it struggles to keep food on its grocery store shelves and medical supplies in its hospitals.

Venezuela has the largest crude oil reserves in the world, and yet it has managed to kill productivity by punishing free enterprise. When I went on a mission trip to Lima, Peru, a few years ago, I was surprised to see many Venezuelans with stories of how grateful they were to have escaped. Imagine making the most oil-rich country in the world a cautionary tale — only something as cool as socialism could accomplish that.

Consider the squalor of Chinese peasants under communism compared to the relative wealth of residents in Hong Kong’s free market(ish) economy. And the collapse of the Soviet Union, which also has abundant energy resources but kept its people in meager conditions via a command economy, speaks for itself. 

Don’t forget Cuba, which has vast, fertile soil, but after nationalizing agriculture, now has to import the majority of its food. And the government food rations only cover about half of the residents’ needs. In Cuba, medicine isn’t rationed, but severe shortages effectively make it feel that way. For a recent episode of the “Outstanding” podcast, I interviewed Yoe Suarez, a contributor to The Washington Stand who fled socialism in his home country of Cuba. Suarez explained on the podcast that, in fact, you need to buy your own medical supplies from overseas and bring it to your surgeon if you’d like the modern luxury of an operation.“ 

"If you need a surgery in Cuba, you have to buy the things that you are going to use in that surgery. Needles, to do the stitches, the, the gloves for the surgeons — outside of Cuba. If you have family outside of Cuba, you call them, and you tell them, ‘I need this, this, this, this, this. Because I’m going to be in a surgery next week.’ And if they send you that, you can go and give all that stuff to the medical provider, and he will perform the surgery [on] you. Because the system is collapsed — the system is just collapsed because inflation — because there are bureaucrats running the thing, not actual doctors, not actual people who are interested in providing health care.”

Socialized medicine sounds so fun!

Beyond that, Suarez warned against a familiar lie: it won’t happen to me.

“You know what? In the 60s, Cubans said the same. We said, ‘We’re not the USSR. We’re not the Soviet Union, we’re Cubans. And Cuba has a big economy [and] has good relations with all over all countries in the area.” And in the 90s, Venezuelans said the same. 'Ah, but we’re not Cubans. You know, we’re Venezuelans. We’re full of oil. We have riches. We have gold and diamonds. We have an amazing economy.’ And I hope New Yorkers are not the next. … They are not going to be just a link in that chain in that long chain, that saying: ‘We are not Cuban. We are not Venezuela. We are New Yorkers.’ Because you know what? It doesn’t matter how good your economy [is] if you give it to the wrong person and the wrong ideas, it will collapse.“

Socialism doesn’t work economically, despite all the great speeches and youth rallies. The math doesn’t add up. But beyond that, socialist countries inevitably turn totalitarian. They lock up dissidents, crack down on religious freedom, and increasingly expand the government until it crushes all freedom and economic growth. Our friend Mr. Suarez had to flee the country, because the government was going after him for his investigative journalism. Communist China is aggressively persecuting the church now, as they did in the Soviet Union. Among the many allegations against Venezuela’s government, torture is among them. I could go on. 

Imagine a terrible trend that is trying to come back in style. Now imagine that trend would take your freedoms, throw you in jail, and make you broke. Welcome to 2025 and 2026, I’m afraid.

Socialism is cool again. No use denying it. But vibes as a decision-making metric is best reserved for fashion, entertainment, and that new coffee shop downtown. When choosing how to govern a country and prevent mass starvation and widespread poverty for your grandchildren, it is better to let the level-headed lead the way, even if they come across as nerds. Turns out math and history are pretty important to running a country, even if it kills the mood. 

So no matter how good looking AOC or Mamdani are or how high house prices get, there are better answers to these real problems than socialism. As they say, humanity has been there, done that, and… well we tried to get the T-shirt, but they were being rationed. 

Casey Harper is managing editor for broadcast for The Washington Stand and host of the Outstanding podcast.