Women who fled socialist regimes are sounding the alarm on the Democratic Socialists of America, a movement gaining serious ground within the Democratic Party.
Their message: Don’t let America become the country we escaped.
A powerful two-minute video called “Take Me Back!” debuted two weeks ago and is already making waves on social media. Produced by Independent Women’s Voice, the spot uses artificial intelligence to transport viewers to a future shaped by Democratic Socialist policies — and it’s not pretty.
The video ends with a woman’s scream to get back to the present and a stark warning: “Beware of the gap between promises and reality.”
The Democratic Socialists of America count some major names among their ranks: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has called Mamdani’s views the future of the Democratic Party. Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t officially a member but caucuses with Democrats and calls himself a democratic socialist.
“Socialism places faith in the state. Capitalism places faith in the people.”
That’s Yali Nunez, who escaped socialism in Cuba, writing in Fox News.
“Socialism assumes government planners can best direct society and allocate resources,” Nunez continues. “Capitalism recognizes that millions of individuals making free choices create innovation, opportunity and prosperity in ways no bureaucracy can replicate.”
The “Take Me Back!” spot plays off the 1985 sci-fi comedy “Back to the Future.” A character resembling Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown transports a woman named Maya in a modified DeLorean to show her what Democratic Socialist America looks like.
The future is bleak.
Everyone gets a home — but the government assigns it. There’s zero waste, so no lattes, only black coffee. Government-run grocery stores require coupons, but prices are so high groceries remain unaffordable. When the store gets robbed, there are no police to call.
Public transit doesn’t move because “workers deserve more,” so they don’t show up.
Healthcare is totally free — with a 72-day wait for an appointment. Two weeks if it’s an emergency.
On social media, Gabriella Hoffman, daughter of socialism escapees, wrote: “I’m aghast at my fellow Americans embracing socialism – including its new ‘hot’ iteration that pretends to be democratic. The end result is destitution, misery, and death. Let’s not have a repeat of the system that nearly destroyed my family and millions of others, please!”
The Democratic Party is locked in an ideological battle for its future. Democratic socialism is surging, and the agenda goes far beyond social programs: abolish the U.S. Senate, have Congress pick the president and Supreme Court justices, defund the Pentagon, and allow all residents to vote regardless of citizenship.
On its website, the Democratic Socialists of America make their mission clear: “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with a democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.”
“We want to win ‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.”
Judy Pino was five years old when the Cuban regime placed a rifle in her hands.
“Before we fled, I recall adults speaking in hushed tones; family members carefully discussing plans they did not want others to hear,” she wrote for IW Features. “Like thousands of Cuban families seeking freedom, we were considered traitors and branded ‘gusanos’ – worms – by supporters of the regime. I remember my mother and grandmother breaking glass bottles in the backyard so they could use the jagged edges to defend themselves if we were attacked on the way out. That is how terrifying those final days felt.”
The Democratic Socialists of America scored six primary wins in the 2026 cycle through national or local endorsements: incumbent Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th Congressional District, Claire Valdez in New York’s 7th, Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York’s 13th, Christopher Rabb in Pennsylvania’s 3rd, Melat Kiros in Colorado’s 1st, and Mai Vang in California’s 7th.
Kiros and Chevalier defeated incumbent members of Congress. Valdez and Rabb won open seats.
Patrice Onwuka, vice president for economic policy at Independent Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity, immigrated to Boston from the Caribbean.
Writing in the Washington Post, she said: “I never get tired of only-in-America stories. My belief in the promise of the United States is endlessly renewed by the rich experiences of diverse people who moved to this nation for safety, freedom and opportunity. That’s what makes the socialist movement now surging through the Democratic Party so distressing: It challenges the very ethos that drew my family here.”
