The Democratic Socialists of America put out a statement celebrating a communist dictator.
They sent their co-chair onto national television to defend it.
And CNN anchor Boris Sanchez left DSA co-chair Ashik Siddique with nowhere to go after sharing what Fidel Castro actually did to his own grandfather.
What the DSA Actually Said About Castro
The DSA released a statement commemorating the 100th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s birth, describing him as an “organizer” and “fighter” who “endures as a stalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle and self-determination for the Global South.”
The party declared it stands by Cuba and its “revolution.”
And in a move that tells you everything about where this openly Marxist organization’s priorities lie, the DSA called for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity,” accusing him and President Donald Trump of waging an “indiscriminate war” against Cuba.
That is the organization Ashik Siddique co-chairs. That is the statement he went on CNN to defend. And the anchor waiting for him happened to have a grandfather who learned firsthand what Castro’s Cuba does to people who speak their minds.
Sanchez Didn’t Let Siddique Off Easy
Sanchez opened by pressing Siddique on the political reality of the DSA’s Castro tribute, asking directly: “Last week, the DSA commemorated 100 years of Fidel Castro with a statement describing him as ‘an organizer’ and ‘a fighter’. How do you think that plays with Florida voters?”
Siddique’s answer was a pivot straight to economic grievance. He talked about cost-of-living struggles in Florida, then pivoted to the military budget, then to ICE enforcement, then to Medicare for All and childcare. He said voters want “taxpayer dollars to be used on things like Medicare for All, raising a living wage, providing childcare for everybody.”
None of that answered the question about lauding a dictator.
Sanchez told Siddique plainly: “I do wonder whether you understand why a statement like that lauding Fidel Castro may not just turn people off from your platform, but offends people who suffered for decades under his dictatorship.”
Siddique then reached for the standard left-wing deflection, invoking Iraq and Afghanistan. “I came of age after Iraq was invaded by the United States, after Afghanistan was, and democracy did not expand there. If we want to expand free and fair elections anywhere in the world it’s about expanding a more open policy toward the whole world,” he said.
Sanchez pressed further, asking whether Siddique had actually spoken with Cubans who fled the regime. Siddique acknowledged he had mostly spoken to second and third-generation Cubans. That answer opened the door for what came next.
Sanchez walked Siddique through his grandfather’s story: a man who had fought against the previous dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had watched friends disappear from the streets for speaking their minds, who joined the revolution hoping it would bring democracy to Cuba. “My grandfather fought in that revolution, hoping to bring democracy to Cuba. And then what happened? Fidel Castro locked my grandfather up, sentenced to 20 years for doing what you’re doing now on live TV, for speaking his mind, for expressing himself freely, for trying to organize politically.”
Then Sanchez put it directly to Siddique: “So, I wonder, again, how you think that lands with people who suffered under that dictatorship, who now you are trying to court as voters, when your organization comes out and lauds 100 years of Castro. I don’t think it would land well with them, Ashik.”
Siddique’s response to all of that was to talk about “massive inequality” in the United States.
What This Organization Actually Represents
The DSA is not a fringe club with no political reach. It is an openly Marxist organization that has placed members inside the Democrat Party at every level of government, pursues the government seizure of major corporations, calls for abolishing the Senate, and wants to eliminate ICE and end all deportations. Its own platform describes the goal of building a classless society by ending the capitalist system. These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are textbook Marxist objectives, and the Castro tribute fits right in.
When Siddique pivoted to healthcare, he was working from the standard socialist playbook: Cuba’s government-run healthcare system as a talking point to deflect from the political prisoners, the forced labor, the executions, and the decades of economic ruin that have left the island unable to keep its lights on.
And that is the tell. The DSA knows what Castro’s Cuba was. Siddique acknowledged there is “repression” in Cuba. But the organization issued a statement calling Castro a “stalwart symbol” anyway, because for Marxists, the repression isn’t the problem. The repression is the feature. Centralized government control of the economy and political life is the goal, and Castro delivered it. That is what the DSA is actually celebrating.
Siddique also defended the statement by arguing that “Many people, especially younger Americans, now, are looking at the history of what happened in Cuba and what it was like before the Cuban Revolution, where it was one of the most unequal societies in the Western Hemisphere.” That framing is deliberate. It is the same framing Marxist organizers have used for generations to justify authoritarian outcomes: the pre-revolutionary society was bad, therefore the revolution was necessary, therefore the repression that followed must be contextualized rather than condemned.
Boris Sanchez’s grandfather would have something to say about that framing. He said it for 20 years in a Cuban prison.
The DSA’s call to prosecute Secretary of State Rubio for “crimes against humanity” over US Cuba policy is worth sitting with for a moment. Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants. His parents left the island. The DSA wants to prosecute him for pressuring a regime that imprisoned people like Sanchez’s grandfather for the crime of organizing politically. The audacity of that position reflects exactly how far outside the American mainstream this organization operates.
But here is the thing about the DSA’s growing footprint inside the Democrat Party. These are not isolated voices being kept at arm’s length by the party establishment. The same Democrat politicians who attack President Trump’s immigration enforcement and demand more government spending on healthcare are increasingly reliant on DSA-aligned activists for their base energy. The line between “mainstream” Democrat and DSA fellow traveler gets harder to find every election cycle.
Siddique’s performance on CNN was a gift to anyone paying attention. He could not answer the question about Castro’s victims. He could not explain how praising a dictator who imprisoned people for speaking freely is compatible with any serious political movement in the United States. He deflected to inequality, to Iraq, to the embargo. And when Sanchez told him a real story about a real man who spent 20 years in a Cuban prison for doing exactly what Siddique was doing on live television, Siddique’s answer was to talk about struggling Americans.
That is what the DSA offers. Not accountability for the failures of socialism. Not honest reckoning with what communist governance actually produces. Just a pivot to the next grievance and a statement calling a dictator a fighter.
The historical record of Marxist governance is not a mystery. Economic collapse, authoritarian control, the destruction of the middle class, and the imprisonment of anyone who dares organize against the state. Cuba is not an exception to that record. It is one of its clearest examples. And the DSA just celebrated it.
Boris Sanchez’s grandfather could have told Ashik Siddique that. He had two decades to think about it.
Source: Mediaite, “‘Locked My Grandfather Up!’ Cuban-American CNN Anchor Holds DSA Co-Chair’s Feet to Fire Over Fidel Castro Tribute”
