👀 The Shining City on a Hill Is Flickering - and My Generation Must Save It

You don’t wake up in a socialist America overnight. It happens slowly — vote by vote, race by race — until one day, the people chanting “liberation” realize they’ve built their own cage.

👀 The Shining City on a Hill Is Flickering - and My Generation Must Save It

I’m part of Generation Z — the very group Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic Socialist, is counting on to deliver him the mayor’s office in New York City. I’ve seen how the Left sells socialism to my peers: dress it up as “compassion,” brand capitalism as “greed,” and use TikTok to pump millions of young Americans full of “government is your savior” soundbites.

But here’s the truth: you don’t wake up in a socialist America overnight. It happens slowly — vote by vote, race by race — until one day, the people chanting “liberation” realize they’ve built their own cage. And once socialism takes hold, it doesn’t hand back power.

I understand that socialism looks trendy to my peers on TikTok, but it’s not some experiment in a lab. People build rafts out of garbage to flee socialist countries for the chance to live in freedom here. Find me one person who escaped a socialist country, came to America for a new life, and isn’t disturbed by the modern-day Left embracing Mamdani’s platform. You won’t.

This didn’t start with Mamdani’s campaign. It started in classrooms where gratitude for America was replaced with guilt. In entertainment that mocked faith, family, and free markets. On social media platforms where dissent is shadow-banned and socialist talking points trend on cue.

Here’s what you won’t hear on CNN or MSNBC: my generation isn’t lost. More and more of us are waking up to the truth — socialism doesn’t “level the playing field,” it levels the entire country into shared misery. We’ve seen the countries our professors praise, and we’ve seen the people who risk everything to escape them. We know the most rebellious thing you can be in 2025 is unapologetically pro-America, pro-faith, and pro-freedom.

For the people like my parents and grandparents who turn on their TV screens and see stories like this and wonder how we got here — I understand your concern. But the fight isn’t over. There’s a growing number of young conservatives who aren’t interested in watching the American experiment get dismantled. We intend to keep the promise of this country alive.

That’s why I keep thinking about something Ronald Reagan said — that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” He wasn’t talking about some far-off threat. He was warning about exactly this moment — when one election could set in motion a change that future generations might never undo.

He also called America a “shining city on a hill” — a beacon of hope to the world. If socialism can win in New York, that beacon risks becoming a cautionary tale — a dimmed light signaling to the world that freedom in America was just a temporary experiment.

And the truth is, we’re not just one generation away from losing it. In New York, we might be one election away.

If my generation doesn’t act now, we’ll be the ones explaining to our children why the light went out — and why we didn’t fight harder to keep it burning.

Brilyn Hollyhand is a 19-year-old political commentator, bestselling author of “One Generation Away: Why Now is the Time to Restore American Freedom”, and host of “The Brilyn Hollyhand Show”. He’s a freshman at Auburn Univeristy studying political science. For more of his hot takes you can follow him on socials @Brilyn Hollyhand or visit BrilynHollyhand.com.