Agnes Gibboney was born in Budapest about ten years after communism took hold in Hungary. Her father was a skilled cabinetmaker, her mother had a good job, and they owned their own house, which was rare. Then the Communist Party assigned a stranger to live in that house, and when her mother objected, the woman asked whether she wanted to be reported. In January 1957, two months after the Soviet invasion, her parents put their two-year-old to sleep with a pharmacist's concoction, jumped a ditch at the Yugoslav border on the last day it was open, and never lived there again.
In this installment of The Jenny Beth Show's Surviving Communism series, Jenny Beth Martin walks through what daily life was like under the regime her parents fled: milk and meat rationing, a secret baptism, bribes for doctors, and radio propaganda that said Americans were starving in the streets. Then the conversation turns to today, and to the young Americans who hear the Democratic Socialists of America promise free rent and free health care. Gibboney's question for each of them: how do you think you are going to get it for free?
Guest: Agnes Gibboney, Hungarian-born legal immigrant, angel mom whose son Ronald was killed by an illegal immigrant, and 2020 candidate for Congress.
In this episode:
• Why every Hungarian conversation her parents had was about the same fear: a neighbor reports you, the police take you, no trial, no hearing
• The stranger the Communist Party assigned to live in her parents' house, and the question that ended every argument: "Do you want me to report you?"
• December 1956: soldiers surround the family at the border and take the suitcase of cigarettes they meant to sell for food
• January 1957: her father jumps the border ditch into Yugoslavia with a sleeping two-year-old in his arms
• Her mother never said goodbye to her own mother, afraid she would report her to stop her; they never saw each other again
• One liter of milk a day for three children, one pound of meat a week, and the New York Times report from 1950 that milk had disappeared from Budapest
• A baptism performed in secret because it was against the law
• Bribing doctors, radio propaganda that said Americans were starving, and how the regime took from the rich, then the middle class, then the poor
• Stateless: Hungary stripped the family's citizenship, and an immigration officer in Los Angeles told her, "You don't belong anywhere"
• Budapest in 1977, still communist: gray cars, bullet holes, and an uncle who answered a question about communism with "shh"
• Why she says socialism and communism are the same thing, and what a "free phone" from the government really costs
• The Cal State San Bernardino student who learned communism was good from his professor and had never once checked
• Her charge to Americans born here: get an education, do your own research, and stand up for this country
The Jenny Beth Show airs live Monday through Friday at 1:00 PM ET. Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action. Subscribe for daily analysis of politics, policy, and the fight for constitutionally limited government.
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00:00 — Welcome: Agnes Gibboney and the Surviving Communism series
02:04 — Hungary in 1977: an uncle who answered "shh"
03:53 — Stateless: "You don't belong anywhere"
05:02 — The first escape attempt: soldiers and a suitcase of cigarettes
07:49 — The refugee camp in Yugoslavia: a baby brother lost
10:35 — Why they left: a father who spoke up too much
12:41 — The immigration medical check: "what a concept that is"
17:22 — The Communist Party moves a stranger into their home: "That's free housing"
19:57 — Letters, a call at the post office; she never saw her mother again
22:05 — Her father's silence, and a night in Copacabana
24:38 — The New York Times, 1950: food shortages reach the front page
26:44 — "All milk products have disappeared completely from Budapest"
30:44 — One pound of meat a week; coworkers give up their vouchers
35:56 — "If Americans would only know how evil it is": the Democratic Socialists of America
37:29 — No rent, no medical bills: "How do you think you're going to get it for free?"
39:31 — Get an education, do your own research, visit a communist country
40:44 — Socialism and communism: "the same thing"; the utopia that never arrives
43:25 — Her daughter's fear; an angel mom's public platform
48:09 — The Cal State San Bernardino student who never checked his professor
50:09 — Why stand up: "the only country in the world"
51:33 — "I'm a legal immigrant. You were born here. You should be doing what I'm doing"
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