Tell me again why some of you think socialism is a solution to "income inequality" or whatever else you're convinced is leading us to the downfall of mankind.
Right. The power of government is going to swoop in and correct the unjust distribution of wealth, which is only the way it is because some people undeservedly became "the winners in life's lottery," while everyone else was left with crappy morsels through no fault of their own? And because elected official serve the interests of everyone, while capitalist pigs only serve the interests of themselves, that's why we can and should trust these dedicated public servants to take from the haves and give to the have-nots and make everything right?
Tell me again why some of you think socialism is a solution to "income inequality"
Have I got that right?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the inevitable result of this line of reasoning. Yep, you know it. I don't toss around Nazi Germany comparisons lightly, but when you've got a dictator conducting a sham election to install an entirely new legislature - under his control of course - and he's summarily pushing aside prosecutors who resist his thuggish oppression of the people, all while he has political opponents dragged from their homes . . . we're still missing the gas chambers and the concentration camps, but the basic structure of things is unmistakable:
Venezuela's opposition on Wednesday readied itself for massive protests against a freshly elected legislative superbody that is expected to hand President Nicolas Maduro vast new powers.
Opposition leader Freddy Guevara urged people to take to the streets on Thursday to prevent the new Constitutional Assembly, dominated by the ruling Socialist Party, from entering and occupying the halls of the opposition-led congress.
The new body will have the power to rewrite the constitution and remove what checks still remain on Maduro's authority. The opposition refused to run in Sunday's election of the assembly.
All those elected to the 545-member body were chosen from among well-known Socialist leaders and rank-and-file pro-government activists.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Maduro would be held responsible for the health of two opposition politicians jailed soon after Sunday's vote was concluded.
In a statement, Trump used the "D" word for the first time to describe Maduro as a "dictator," a designation the Venezuelan opposition has long used to describe the former bus driver and union leader.
Maduro, like his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, regularly laughs off criticism from Washington.
But the United States is Venezuela's top crude importer. There have been rumblings in U.S. Congress this week about placing sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector, which is the country's only substantial source of export dollars needed to keep the government afloat.
Despite vast crude reserves, the country is in a deep recession and is suffering from food and medicine shortages aggravated by the world's highest inflation rate.
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The new socialist "superbody" can confer any power it wants on Maduro
I hope Trump follows through and implements some sort of embargo against the import of Venezuelan crude. It's true that this would exacerbate the suffering of the Venezuelan people in the short term, and that's extremely regrettable. But almost all the resources coming into the country are being used to prop up the regime anyway. It's not like the people are getting a cut of the action. If Venezuela loses the money it's getting from exporting oil to the U.S., Maduro might not have sufficient resources to continue operating in any plausible sense, including the actions he takes on a daily basis to terrorize dissidents and rough up protesters.
The new socialist "superbody" can confer any power it wants on Maduro, not that it has any legitimacy but if the military is going to back its play then Maduro can probably act on it. But what the "superbody" can't do is make the resources necessary to implement all this appear out of thin air.
The U.S. has ramped up domestic production to the point where we could survive just fine without oil from Venezuela. In fact, it might present the opportunity for us to open up even more global markets that can enhance our power as an oil exporter, which we've only really been for a few years since the ill-conceived oil export ban dating back to the 1970s was finally lifted.
Remember, as Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. Right now Maduro is totally dependent on money from U.S. oil importers to survive because the Venezuelan economy cannot produce wealth under the crushing weight of the socialist controls he and Hugo Chavez have imposed on it. And we've got lots of other ways to get oil, and no incentive at all to keep propping up this murderous regime.
I just pray that Venezuela can be saved before it's too late
And all of this was extremely predictable. Chavez and Maduro tried to win political support from the masses by controlling production and pricing, which bought them short-term power at the expense of the business community's ability to produce needed goods and earn decent revenue. That's why Venezuelans now face shortages of even the most basic goods, which has given rise not only to crime but to daily protests and massive political instability. The people no longer support the Chavez/Maduro socialist model because it's utterly failed. It was enticing at first but now they've seen where it leads, and they want no part of it.
It turns out those dirty capitalists do indeed meet the needs of the people better than those fine public servants, because the capitalists actually have to satisfy the desires of their customers to stay in business. Meanwhile, socialist politicians like Maduro stay in power by unleashing the military to put down all opposition, and by holding fraudulent elections to install their own cronies in place of legitimately elected lawmakers.
You American millennials who bought Bernie Sanders's message about how "democratic socialism" is what we need to make things fair in this country? Look to the south. Venezuela demonstrates there is nothing fair or just about socialism. It's just a different group of people acting in their own interests. But this group of people has control of an army, because fools like you gave it to them.
I just pray that Venezuela can be saved before it's too late.
