A recent headline from a well-respected news outlet caught my attention: "Could socialism make America happy again?"

Surely, the article must be satirical, I thought. Who in their right mind would believe that the most oppressive form of government, responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths, horrific living conditions and the elimination of personal freedoms, would make anyone "happier"?

It wasn't a joke. Nor are the slew of articles these days proclaiming that "Socialism's moment is here" and similar findings that show socialism's popularity is quickly climbing, especially among young people.

America has a socialism problem — or a socialism perception problem. A great swath of our country has bought into the lie that socialism can somehow provide a better quality of life, and it owes largely to Democrats' success transforming our education system into an indoctrination machine.

It's no secret that higher education has long been a bastion of liberalism. In one recent poll, half of college professors at four-year schools self-identified as liberal, compared to only a quarter who identified as conservative. Conservative faculty were considerably more likely to hide their political affiliations for fear of being fired or retaliated against.

Likewise, a survey in 2020 found that nearly 40% of conservative college students did not feel comfortable expressing their political views because they worried their peers might file a complaint against them.

One might think that our country's institutions of learnings would actively seek to educate young people about the dangers of socialism. There are, after all, numerous examples from recent history. Instead, they preach the evils of free-market competition, which has made the United States a global beacon of hope and freedom for over 250 years.

An annual study this year found that nearly 40% of students said that their college classes and activities negatively affected their views of capitalism, compared to less than 10% who said their experience improved it. That shouldn't be a surprise. The same report two years earlier found that faculty were "more often positive toward socialism and negative toward capitalism."

Today, 46% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 have a favorable opinion of socialism — more than twice as many compared to those who had a negative opinion of it.

Sadly, the left's indoctrination program now starts well before college. Students are steeped in the immorality of capitalism and the romanticization of socialism beginning as early as primary grades.

In 2016, a now-often-cited survey found that one-third of millennial and Gen Z students believed more people were killed under former President George W. Bush than by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Almost one in five students did not know who Stalin was.

U.S. civics education hardly seems to be trending in a better direction. A poll by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 2019 found more than seven in 10 Gen Z students and over six in 10 Millennials said they did not learn about communist regimes throughout their K-12 careers.

In 2022, our country's National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in U.S. History, which measure students' knowledge of the subject "in the context of democracy, culture, technological and economic changes," fell five points from 2018, and 14 points below 2014 averages.

In 1997, following the publication of "The Black Book of Communism" — which estimated that nearly 100 million people died under communist and socialist regimes in the 20th century alone — the late historian and political commentator Tony Judt, himself a staunch liberal, wrote in The New York Times:

"No one will any longer be able to claim ignorance or uncertainty about the criminal nature of Communism, and those who had begun to forget will be forced to remember anew."

But Americans, particularly young people, have forgotten. Or, more appropriately, they have been presented a whitewashed, untrue depiction of socialism that omits the ugly realities and fabricates false comforts. Not surprisingly, they have largely accepted this blissful but ultimately make-believe narrative.

That doesn't change the truth: Socialism as a system of government has never worked, and it will never work. It's time to flip the script in our schools and start teaching our children the truth.

Ken Buck served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015-2024 representing Colorado's 4th congressional district. He now serves as a Fellow with the Independent Center. To find out more about Ken Buck and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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