Look South

As the results of the New Hampshire Democratic primary come in, some in the media will swoon over the prospects of the Dem's socialist candidate, Bernie Sanders. It appears that Sanders will get at least 25+ percent of the vote and is likely to win the primary. Bernie is the darling of the Dem's hard-left base, a champion of young people who are naive enough to believe his promises of lots and lots of free stuff, and the choice of far too many Democrats who, driven by Trump Derangement, will vote for a man who wants "revolution" at a time when the economy is booming, people of color are doing well, the United States is not embroiled in any major conflicts, and poll after poll indicates that the American people are generally happy with their lives.

The problem with Sanders voters is they refuse to look South to the wreckage that socialism created in South America's once-richest country, Venezuela. James Freeman writes:

If questioned on the horror that is now Venezuela, Mr. Sanders will surely claim that it does not represent his kind of “democratic socialism.” But how will he explain the support he provided to the strongmen of Caracas as they went about trashing Venezuelan democracy and prosperity?

In January of 2003, as Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez was cracking down on regime opponents, he was thrilled to receive support from a few extremists in the U.S. Congress. Pascal Fletcher reported for Reuters:

Chavez on Sunday read out a Jan 9 letter of support sent by 19 U.S. Congress members recognizing him as the legitimately elected president of Venezuela.
“If Abraham Lincoln or George Washington were alive and here today, they would be on our side,” he said.
In their letter, the 19 members of the U.S. House of Representatives - 18 Democrats and one independent - told Chavez they strongly opposed attempts to remove him from office and condemned Bush administration officials who appeared to support the short-lived coup against him in April.
The authors of the letter included Reps. John Conyers of Michigan, Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and independent Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

It’s hard to calculate how much better off Venezuelans would be today if the resistance to the thug Chavez had succeeded in 2002. But even then, Mr. Sanders should have known that U.S. actions in the country did not deserve condemnation.

But Bernie doesn't like his own country very much, at least in its current non-revolutionary form. He hates, hates those who succeed in life and harangues them constantly about "paying their 'fair share.'" He tells us, much as Chavez and then Maduro told the people of Venezuela, that it is moral and good to give a vast centralized government control over everything from their health care to their education to their wallet.

Freeman continues:

What is not defensible is Bernie Sanders continually standing up for brutal regimes. In 2006, Mr. Sanders engineered another public-relations coup for Venezuela’s socialist government by arranging a deal with regime-owned Citgo to provide subsidized heating oil in Vermont. Whatever it cost the Venezuelan government was surely worth the propaganda value. Mr. Sanders helped the regime embarrass the U.S. Government, which had been trying to alert the world to the rising authoritarianism and economic destruction occurring in Caracas.

Sen. Sanders has a history of supporting socialist tyrants. Now voters must decide what kind of socialism he would inflict on the United States.

Should the Dems lose their minds and actually nominate Sanders, I have no doubt that his opponent will tell us exactly the kind socialism he'll inflict should he be elected. The political commercials almost write themselves.