Posted on 05/14/2016 5:53:55 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy
If nations could have biographies, Venezuela's would read something like this: After a rocky adolescence, Vennie got his life straightened out, got an education, a good job, and lived a fairly comfortable life. However, in his dotage, he was suckered by a succession of con artists and blew through all his savings, ending his days penniless and bitter.
That, in a nutshell, is pretty much what Hugo Chavez and his socialist caudillo successors have done to the country. By Latin American standards, Venezuela used to a prosperous and stable nation. Venezuela possesses one of the largest petroleum reserves in the Western hemisphere, and also contains substantial reserves of bauxite, iron ore, gold, and diamonds. It was largely free from the drug cartel-inspired crime waves that wracked her neighbors like Colombia. The country possessed a vigorous, well-educated middle class, and for decades had the highest per capita GDP in South America. The nation was also home to a fairly substantial amount of heavy industry and was able to supply many of the domestic needs of its own population.
Then, however, came Hugo Chavez and his "Bolivarian revolution" in 1998. In this "revolution," a socialist program was quickly implemented, and economic chaos and the erosion of civil liberties quickly followed. Opposition parties were systematically undercut and removed from power as elections were blatantly defrauded and nullified by Chavez's government. Leading opponents of the regime were imprisoned, when they weren't being killed by regime-inspired bands of socialist thugs called "people's militia." Rigid censorship of the media was put into effect. Naturally, personal firearms were confiscated and firearms ownership was severely restricted. Businesses – and especially the petroleum industry – were brought under state control and strict price controls implemented.
As a result of this, Venezuela's middle class – the educated, capital-bearing mainstay of Venezuela's economy – have to a great degree fled to the United States and Spain. The rest of the country has fallen apart into a morass of poverty and violence. The crime rate (including, especially, murders and kidnappings), has nearly sextupled since 1998. The petroleum industry – once the mainstay of Venezuela's export economy and a tremendous source of wealth – has collapsed, despite world demand for petroleum continuing to rise. The shelves of the stores are empty, and even basic commodities like toilet paper are nearly non-existent, typically being hoarded and confiscated by the government whenever they do appear. The latest news out of the country shows continuing food riots and looting of supermarkets as Venezuelans – literally – cannot find food to satisfy their hunger.
One supposes that it is no consolation to them that if they aren't eating, they won't need the toilet paper they can't find, either.
All in all, Venezuela is an excellent object example of socialism in action. No longer do we have to talk about the historical failures of socialism in years gone by – we now have it occurring in real time on our television screens. As such, it should be obvious to anyone with a pulse and at least two neurons to rub together that we definitely would not want to follow the example of Venezuela.
And yet, there are millions of Americans who are "feeling the Bern."
Now, it should be pretty obvious that neither Democratic competitor for their nomination is any good at all. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, should they be elected, would be absolute disasters who would finish the destruction of America currently taking place under Barack Obama. This is why no reasonable person wants to see either of them elected, and why all reasonable people want to do everything possible to prevent them from getting into the White House.
Of the two, Bernie would be an even bigger disaster. Hillary Clinton is corrupt, inept, a globalist, a shill, and a hack. But one doesn't get the impression from her that she's a "true believer." If cornered and forced into it, she could be made to tack back to the center given strong legislative opponents, just as her husband was forced to do by Newt Gingrich and the Republican class of 1994. I doubt that the current GOP could get the job done, but it's at least theoretically possible that there could be decent Republicans elected in large enough numbers who would actually stand up to a hypothetical Clinton redux.
The same can't necessarily be said for Bernie Sanders, whose whole life has been devoted to being a socialist leech on the body politic. Like Obama, Sanders appears to be a true believer – one who actually believes all that garbage and propaganda pumped out by the Left's organs of mental manipulation. Sanders would actually be even more of a spiritual successor to Obama than Hillary would be.
This role as a true believer explains why Sanders – a shriveled up, rich old white guy from practically the whitest state in the union – is so popular with millennials and the politically-correct social justice warrior (SJW) crowd. It's not very surprising at all that a politician who manifestly refuses to observe the world around him and learn from the mistakes of others (such as the Bolivarians in Venezuela) appeals so much to millennials – the generation in America with the least amount of knowledge, wisdom, experience, and fortitude and the greatest amount of misplaced confidence in their own abilities and goodness.
If Bernie Sanders became president, and was augmented with a Democrat-controlled Congress, we could expect to see happen here what happened in Venezuela. And yes, that includes things like the suppression of political opposition (which the Left already tries to do via "political correctness" and top-down imposed "social justice" agenda items such as gay "marriage" and "transgender" right) and outright control of the media. Free speech? Gone. Freedom of religion? Gone. Right to keep and bear arms? Gone. Price and wage controls, state control of businesses, production mandates, and all the rest of the socialist agenda would be here to stay.
Very soon after that, America's well-stocked supermarket shelves would begin to look like Venezuela's – home only to dust and cobwebs. Likely to follow would be an exodus of as many well-educated, intelligent, productive people (you now, the ones who drive the economy) as could possibly get out. The country would basically be left with only the Democrats and other left-wingers who voted to create the problems in the first place.
That's why Bernie Sanders can't be allowed anywhere near the White House. Under Bernie Sanders, the United States of America would become a failed state such as Venezuela has turned into. The future would be forced to write its biography of Uncle Sam, the unfortunate American nation which chose to commit suicide once things started looking rough. Do we really want to let that happen?
In a sane and rational society, Klintoon would be in prison going thru a trial for treason, and Sanders wouldn’t have ever had a chance-in-hell. America isn’t that place, anymore.
Bernie is not interested in a successful state, he is interested in controlling the lives and property of others. He lusts for the power to kill the individual.
(Vermont is losing its nuclear reactor Vermont Yankee, which supplied a large fraction of their power, and are now losing a natural gas plant too.)
In a sane and rational society, Klintoon would be in prison going thru a trial for treason, and Sanders wouldn’t have ever had a chance-in-hell. America isn’t that place, anymore.
Well stated. Add in we wouldn’t have a one side MSM either
Latinos mostly like socialism. Its part of the Caudillo culture.
Now they really get to real the Bern.
We saw a program that at nite the cars and suv’s are being equipped with sirens and flashing lights to blow thru red lights. If they stop,they could be carjacked!
This is why it is very important to vote for Trump this coming November.
We’re a generation from being a failed state like Venezuela.
Socialism equals misery.
But some people there seem to want more of it.
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