Lessons from Venezuela

  • oeb11
  • 10-27-2021, 10:00 AM
https://townhall.com/columnists/john...zuela-n2598078


Source: AP Photo/Susan Walsh








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Democrats say President Joe Biden won "a strong mandate." His government can do all sorts of good things!
I don't believe he has a mandate, but thanks to the selfishness of former President Donald Trump, Democrats control Congress, and that may give them power to shove their worst ideas down our throats. Those include:
No. 1: Hate speech laws.
No. 2: Expanding the Supreme Court.
No. 3: Gun control.
No. 4: Spending much more.
Unfortunately, they don't seem to have noticed that these "reforms" were just tried in a country near us. My new video reveals how they worked out (spoiler alert: badly).
Venezuela became progressives "it" country when Hugo Chavez became president.
Celebrities like Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore showered him with praise. Sean Penn called him "one of the most important forces we've had on this planet."
"You have to be blind to believe that," responds Andres Guilarte of The Fund for American Studies.
Guilarte is one of many Venezuelans who risked his life to protest socialist rule. When the protests failed, he came to the United States as a refugee.
Today, protest is even riskier in Venezuela, because of progressive reform No. 1: the "Law Against Hatred."
Half America's Democrats support that, says a YouGov poll.

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They should rethink what they want, says Guilarte, because "the ruling party ... (gets to decide) what hate speech is."
In Venezuela, critics of the government now face jail time.
No. 2: Some Democrats want to add four new justices to the Supreme Court. Sen. Ed Markey says the new justices would "restore balance" after years of Republican rule.
Chavez added justices to Venezuela's Supreme Court.
He "changed it from 20 people to 32 people," says Guilarte. After that, "the court never ruled against him." It let him shut down opposition media and confiscate 1,000 private businesses.
No. 3: American Democrats want gun control.
In Venezuela now, only the army, police and certain favored groups may have guns. That made it even easier for officials to come to people's homes and take their property.
"You're just in your shop, selling shoes," explains Guilarte. "Some government officer arrives and says, 'We're going to shut down your business.' That would be completely different if that business owner had a gun."
"But the government would just come in with bigger guns," I suggest.
"If we had a culture like you have in the U.S.," Guilarte responds, "It would have been incredibly difficult."



Venezuela's gun control didn't even reduce crime. In fact, Venezuela's murder rate rose. Venezuela now has the third-highest murder rate in the world.
"These laws never work," says Guilarte. "Citizens don't have guns. But the criminals have bigger guns!"
No. 4: The most important lesson from Venezuela is the idea that governments can fund whatever they want to do simply by printing more money.
"The Federal government can never run out of money," says Modern Monetary Theory economist Stephanie Kelton. She's convinced politicians that they can spend much more without worrying about inflation.

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"Well, of course, John," replies Guilarte, sarcastically. "That's how the economy works. You just print money because money comes up from trees."
Venezuela printed money and won praise from progressives by spending some on programs they said would help the poor. But the poor and the middle class were crushed by the inflation that followed: 20% ... then 100% ... 3,000% ... 40,000%! This destroyed Venezuela.


Inflation in America has risen to 5.4%. Bad, but of course, nothing close to what happened in Venezuela.
"Doesn't mean that it can't happen!" warns Guilarte.
That, unfortunately, is true.
"We were the richest economy in Latin America," he points out. "People from America came to Venezuela to build businesses."
Now the country is in shambles.
"Everything can fall to the ground really quickly," says Guilarte. "Inflation is like a cancer. You never know when it's going to hit you."
Let's learn from socialism's failures.
The idea that massive government spending and other progressive feel-good policies will help America, when these same ideas failed horribly elsewhere, is a dangerous myth.
John Stossel is author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media."

Comment - None so Blind - as DemocratiCommunist proletariat indoctrinated adn blinded by socialist/Communist Lies.

and pics of pretty boys such as che'.

One can bring a jackass to water - but it is impossible to force a jack ass to drink.


Buck fidenFrom my cold dead hands!
Exactly, but the idiots can't see that their polices always fail
rexdutchman's Avatar
Hmm Don't follow the fantasy's of utopia that haven't worked EVER
Unique_Carpenter's Avatar
Exactly, but the idiots can't see that their polices always fail Originally Posted by farmstud60
History always repeats. Again, and again, and again, and ....
Protesting Socialism in the streets doesn't seem to work either. We must eliminate the Socialist Ideology by not voting for these people or doing anything they say.
when no one has a proprietary interest in anything succeeding

nothing succeeds

such is the case in socialism
Grace Preston's Avatar
Its also important to pay attention to the things that happened before Chavez... to understand how socialism was able to take hold in Venezuela. The Caracazo protest was a massive protest that happened prior to socialism.. as austerity measures resulted in people being unable to get to work, and grocery stores refused to open because the programs that subsidized many things was ended under austerity measures.


This is why I'm always yelling about how its problematic to be too far left OR too far right. When you go too far right.. the pendulum will eventually swing and swing hard the other way.


https://www.ozy.com/true-and-stories...out-oil/92669/


While there is a slant to the article, the historical facts presented are accurate. The crisis in Venezuela predates socialism by well over a decade.
  • oeb11
  • 10-27-2021, 03:48 PM
Far left v Far Right
Both are identical authoritarian ends of extremes that meet on teh far Side of Tyranny.



Whether 'fascism' or' communism' - or whatever idiotology - the result is human slavery.
South Africa can teach us some valuable lessons too. Shit we can learn lessons from Detroit.
Grace Preston's Avatar
Far left v Far Right
Both are identical authoritarian ends of extremes that meet on teh far Side of Tyranny.



Whether 'fascism' or' communism' - or whatever idiotology - the result is human slavery. Originally Posted by oeb11



We need to start sacrificing the problem children on both sides (not literally-- just get them out of office)


I think exchanging Ayanna Pressley, Pelosi and Ilhan Omar for MTG, McConnell and Boebert is a great start.
... No worrys... TRUMP will again fix everything
when he's voted back on.

Wait 'til there's travel problems during the
holidays... Not enough natural energy to heat
homes during the upcoming winter season.

Or LESS energy to fuel the electrical grid next year
during the warmer months

### Salty
Grace Preston's Avatar
You can't really consider something "fixed" when its foundation is so shaky that a change in leadership can knock it all down. That is once again the biggest issue with the fact that being moderate is so passe these days... nothing gets done, and nothing gets fixed-- because the next guy in makes it their mission to eliminate and change everything that was done before them... doesn't matter the value of whatever it is-- it belonged to "that guy" so its gotta go.
rexdutchman's Avatar
The US has a Constitution WE NEED TO GO BACK TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS .
  • oeb11
  • 10-28-2021, 07:59 AM
GP - thank for your thoughts

Cogent adn Constructive.
WTF's Avatar
  • WTF
  • 10-28-2021, 08:05 AM
GP - thank for your thoughts

Cogent adn Constructive. Originally Posted by oeb11
You're one of the far right that she spike of!