On Tuesday, November 7th, President Trump declared that the day will be a “National Day for the Victims of Communism.” The day marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Bolshevik revolution and the beginnings of the Soviet Union.

This declaration comes during trying times in our nation. We live in a political atmosphere of deep-seeded polarization. Protests have run rampant through our streets periodically for the past few years. Some of these protesters like to use imagery, ideas, and rhetoric that harken back to this disastrous regime and other communist governments throughout the world. These people like to twist the history of these brutal regimes and make them out as something they’re not. They enjoy holding them up on pedestals, claiming they are basically Utopian societies that we as Americans should strive to emulate and not fight against. These groups (such as Antifa and others) throw their rhetoric around and spread these ideas willy-nilly with no concern for the true history behind these abominable communist governments.

In a statement from the White House on the declaration they go on to claim, "Over the past century, communist totalitarian regimes around the world have killed more than 100 million people and subjected countless more to exploitation, violence and untold devastation.” These assertions are true, and they make up the inconvenient truth that American socialists and communists refuse to acknowledge. They parade down the street wearing Che Guevara shirts, waving red flags, and brandishing the hammer-and-sickle symbol on anything they can. What they don’t do is to also acknowledge the death and destruction that go hand-in-hand with communism.

Throughout my school life, teachers always taught us the age-old adage that “communism works great on paper, but not in practice.” I admit, the idea of a workmens’ revolution led by the people to overthrow corrupt governments and attain their freedom, of course, sounds good and reasonable. I can see the appeal. But you cannot separate the hypothetical from reality. While communistic revolution always seems like a great idea at the time, it has been proven time and time again that this populist fervor never lasts for very long. Once the old regime is kicked out, the revolutionary leaders simply fill the roles of their old masters. They fill the role as oppressive dictators very well. Once these new dictators take power and implement their communistic societal reforms is when the trouble begins, and the bodies begin to stack up.

A few examples of atrocities committed in the name of communism are:

• The Holodomor (1932-1933): Otherwise known as the Ukrainian Genocide or the Ukrainian Famine. This event caused the deaths of 7-10 million Ukrainians, brought about by the Soviet government. Communist collectivism policies were a major factor.
• Landlord killings under Mao Zedong (1947-1976): the State-encouraged slaughter of landlords and others in local positions of power by poor peasants, an effort to redistribute land to the masses. 13-14 million casualties are estimated.
• The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962): Communist China’s sweeping societal, cultural, and economic reforms. Brought about famine. Casualty estimates range from 30-55 million.
• Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979): 2 million people are estimated to have died in this event carried out by Cambodia’s communist Khmer Rouge regime. Both ethnic and religious minorities, as well as political enemies, were main targets.

These are but a few major examples from the 100-year history of communism. Notice I did not mention North Korea, a known purveyor of concentration and work camps because data is not yet available on the number of casualties caused by the Kim regime. In between these major events I have listed, people living in these regimes were (and are in some cases) living in constant fear of death or imprisonment for their beliefs or actions which could happen at any time if the government deemed it fit.

So next time you see people with their faces covered, dressed in black, waving Soviet flags and shouting “down with capitalism,” remember what it is they are really standing for. Remember the millions upon millions of people who had to die in order for humanity to figure out that this system of government was not the best, and may be one of the worst ever devised.

Remember that what they stand against is what has made this country that we live in the most powerful in the world, with one of the highest standards of living, with rights that almost no other country allows their citizens, and with opportunities in such abundance that every person has a chance to succeed. Just remember that.