Part 1 in a series with The Dissident Project, an organization dedicated teaching American high school and college students about the horrors of authoritarianism from young adults who experienced it firsthand. Daniel Di Martino is from Venezuela. Tahmineh Dehbozorgi is from Iran. Both were once among the freest and most prosperous nations on their respective continents. Daniel and Tahmineh joined Rep. Crenshaw to describe the roads their home countries went down to end up at the same point: violent, oppressive regimes where the citizens have no hope to make their own destinies. They ask us to consider what could lead America down that same road.

Daniel Di Martino is the founder of the Dissident Project and a Graduate Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He was born and raised in Venezuela and witnessed the collapse of his country under the socialist policies of Chavez and Maduro. He emigrated to the United States in 2016. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielDiMartino.

Tahmineh Dehbozorgi escaped the Ayatollah of Iran on 4th of July 2015 at the age of 15. Today she is a student at the George Washington University Law School. Follow her on Twitter at @DeTahmineh.