A few years ago, a woman named Xi Van Fleet stood up at a school board meeting in Loudoun County and warned a room full of Americans that what she was seeing in our schools looked an awful lot like Mao's Cultural Revolution. Most people applauded, though very few people understood what she meant.

Xi grew up in Communist China during Mao's Cultural Revolution. She watched students turn on teachers, neighbors turn on neighbors, and children taught to trust the state more than their own parents. She lived through the famine, the indoctrination, the collectivism, the fear, and the chaos. Then she came to America in 1986, thinking she had escaped all of it forever. 

Now, she's watching some very familiar patterns unfold here.

We talk about Mao, the Red Guards, censorship, conformity, DEI, collectivism, language policing, cancel culture, TikTok, the CCP, why Americans still don't understand communism, and what happens when people slowly surrender individual liberty for the promise of "the greater good." We also talk about Kentucky, manure, panda bears, the Second Amendment, and why Xi believes America is still worth fighting for.

Agree with her or not, this is one of the most intense and thought-provoking conversations I've had in a long time.

Xi's new book is called Made in America, and if nothing else, her story is a reminder that history doesn't always repeat itself exactly…but it sure does rhyme.