Even as the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela devolves to military suppression of the people and teeters on civil war, our own socialist-wannabes continue to promise free this, free that, and government jack boots on the necks of all those people and businesses that are responsible for the good things we all enjoy. Despite the admission by left-leaning reporters on the ground that the disarming of Venezuela’s populace has left them defenseless against Maduro’s thuggery, our own socialist-wannabes insist that guns in the hands of private citizens is a Bad Thing, and plot to nibble away at our gun rights until they no longer exist. Notwithstanding Venezuela being among the most oil-rich countries in the world and, less than a decade ago, South America’s wealthiest economy, her collapse due to the inevitabilities of socialistic mismanagement, rapacity, and excessive giveaway have given no pause whatsoever to our own socialist-wannabes, who promise to expand the already-mismanaged, to take even more from the few, and to give away more, more, and more.
How can our socialist-wannabes and their hordes of supporters witness what happened in Venezuela and insist on taking America in that same direction? Do they actually believe it could never happen here, even as they sky-scream their self-flagellating fears of Trump as strong-man, riding roughshod over our system of government?
Why do they turn their eyes to Scandinavia as examples of “socialism done right,” when what they propose, promise, and want is far more Venezuela than it is Sweden, and when Scandinavia has turned away from the plethora of economy-killing proposals currently emanating, like fetid swamp-stink, from the clown-car of Democratic Presidential wannabes?
Why could it never happen here? Socialism imposed death, misery, and oppression on the Russians, Poles, Germans, and many other Eastern Europeans; on the Chinese, North Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and many other Asians; on the Ethiopians, Somalians, Congolese and many other Africans; and on the Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. It’s been tried, with terrible results, all over the world, among all races and ethnicities, in all climates, geographies, and resource levels. But, with what I can only assume are deliberate blinders to all that historical misery, our progressives are in a bull-rush leftward, promising all that the previous incarnations of socialism spectacularly failed to deliver. And, they seek to disarm the people, despite the countless examples of how disarmed populaces have been run roughshod by the governments that once promised to make things better for them via socialism.
I can hear it now: The Europeans got it right, and Denmark is the happiest country in the world. Why, then, are they not proposing the Scandinavian model, which involves less progressive taxation, a much higher tax burden on the working and middle classes, free-market economics, government spending cuts, universal school vouchers, privatization (including of Social Security), elimination of inheritance taxes, and the “Protestant work ethic?” Why are they proposing free-everything paid for by taxing someone else, and a murderous stranglehold on the private economy? Why are they also ignoring the fact that the Scandinavians have spent the past couple decades working themselves away from the socialist model that they are proposing for America?
Why do they lie about the Scandinavian model and wholly ignore the results of Venezuela’s socialism?
Is it because they see Venezuela as something of a “lesser” nation, populated by less enlightened, less advanced, or less capable people? Is it because they look at lily-white Northern Europe as the place where the smart people, who’ve supposedly figured it all out, live? Is there an undercurrent bigotry against brown people in the largely wealthy-white ranks of progressive activism? Is there a “white-savior industrial complex” that dismisses the failures in Venezuela as the result of her leaders and people being somehow of lesser stock?
Accusations of racism are more often lobbed by progressive activists than by others, both as a nasty argument-deflecting tactic and because they’ve been conditioned to see racism under every rock. Yet, people accusing others of that which they themselves are guilty of is a common human behavior and defense mechanism, known as psychological projection. If someone constantly screams “racist,” don’t be surprised to find racist attitudes in his own views. And, given progressivism’s long history of condescension and worse, it’s not beyond the pale to at least consider that our socialist-wannabes’ dismissal of socialism’s blatant and obvious failure in Venezuela is born of bigotry.
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I agree with a lot of what you say here.
I am waiting for someone, when listing reasons for the failures of the Venezuelan government, to include the possibility that the CIA or some of its friends may be at work here. I mean, an oil-rich country with a socialist government, come on.
Occam’s Razor tells us the answer: Venezuela failed because of socialism. History shows us, ably, that it’s the simplest and most obvious answer.
Oil-rich, however, isn’t a guarantee for success, even under a not-socialist government. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
How much is due to socialism and how much is due to dictatorship, though I can’t think of a country that tries socialism that doesn’t go to a dictatorship. though many of the European Countries do seem to be pulling back before they descend into the strongman realm.
It depends on which Euro countries you look at. They’re wildly different in their implementations. The smart ones have pulled back from many of the ideas that our Dem candidates are hawking.