Blood at the End

Noted anti-Semitic politician, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is now working on becoming a noted anti-American politician as well. Omar, an Islamist and a socialist (see my recent post on the two ideologies) has decided that the disintegration of Venezuelan society, the mass migration of almost 3 million Venezuelan citizens driven by starvation, the collapse of the Venezuela economy, the collapse of their healthcare system, and rampant crime and violence are not due to the socialist regimes of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Madura, but rather, the actions of ... wait for it ... Donald Trump and America. Yep, John A. Wulfsohn reports:

Appearing on Democracy Now, a news program broadcast on PBS, among other outlets, Omar was asked to weigh in on what the host described as a "US-supported coup attempt" against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

"A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela and we have sort of set the stage for where we are arriving today," Omar said. "This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States."

Omar added that there are "finally" lawmakers who have been elected to Congress who agree with her views.

And every single one of them is a Democrat.

As I've noted repeatedly, the problem isn't Omar—a telegenic extremist who has a far bigger platform than she deserves because the trained hamsters in the media kind-a, sort-a, like what she says are are sympatico with her. Rather, the problem—and it's a massive problem—is a Democratic party that does nothing to condemn her words or her positions. One can only draw two possible conclusions—the dems are so afraid of their hard-left base they are paralyzed, or the majority of the party agrees with her. In either case, for many moderate Dems it's well past time to #Walkaway.

Because Omar is both an Islamist and a socialist, it's fair to state that the vast majority of her positions are not only wrong, but dangerous. However, I do agree with her that the USA should not intercede militarily in Venezuela. Doing so would quickly allow socialists like Omar to rewrite history and claim (as Omar does) that it wasn't the abject failure of their ideology, but rather U.S. boots on the ground that caused Venezuela to become a failed state. Furthermore, our history of intervention in South America and elsewhere over the past 60 years has not been a good one.

In reality, it's up to the Venezuelan people to fix this. Twenty years ago, they enthusiastically embraced the empty promises offered by Hugo Chavez and voted him into power with smiles. In case you forgot, those promises encompassed "income equality," demonization of the "rich", an anti-business/anti-profit narrative, government takeovers of entire industries, "free" healthcare, "free" college, and lots of other "free" stuff. [Gosh that sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?]

Now, suffering because their country was destroyed when those same empty promises failed to materialize as they always fail to materialize under socialism, the Venezuelan people need to remedy their plight with their own blood.

That's been the story of socialism for the past 100 years—smiles at the beginning and blood at the end.

UPDATE:
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Mike Gonzalez provides some background on the manner in which socialism destroyed Venezuela is less than 20 years:

The bullying hasn’t come from Washington. It has originated from the Miraflores palace, the Venezuelan version of the White House, and from Havana, where the Castro family has been pulling the strings of both Chávez and Maduro for decades.

Slowly at first, the PSUV took control of all of Venezuela’s ­institutions. The judiciary, the Supreme Court, the military top brass, the electoral council — all fell into the maw of the PSUV. This meant that there were no checks and balances, no electoral accountability. The top officials and generals Chávez and Maduro surrounded themselves with became more interested in narco-trafficking than in serving their nation.

Their economic mismanagement eventually caused GDP to shrink, from an estimated $331.6 billion in 2012 to $96.3 billion today. The breadbasket of Latin America became its beggar.

When Venezuela’s inflation rate hit 1.62 million percent this March, it was an improvement — from 2.3 million percent in February. What fuels this hyper-inflation is the Central Bank’s practice of printing more and more money to finance socialist public spending.

The Institute of International Finance estimates public spending equaled close to 40% of Venezuela’s GDP last year. That’s simply unsustainable — something our politicians who promise free tuition, health care and a “living wage” should remember.

In 1999, the Venezuelan people thought their socialist future was bright. Never, and I do mean, never, did they imagine that they were on the road to ruin. It took less than 20 year ... 20 years! The next time Americans hear the empty promises of Bernie Sanders or Liz Warren or any other socialist wannabes, it might be worth thinking just a bit about Venezuela. Never, and I do mean, never, do supporters of American Democratic Socialists imagine that they might take us on the road to ruin. Sorta just like the people of Venezuela in 1999.