"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
― Margaret Thatcher
Two decades after Hugo Chavez vowed to lift up the poor and promised a better future for all, Venezuela's once prosperous economy is in shambles, citizens pick through garbage looking for scraps of food, vital medicines are in short supply and more than 3 million people have fled the socialist petri dish of Chavez's policies
1992: Venezuela became the 3rd richest country in the western hemisphere due to its vast oil reserves
1997: Venezuela became the 2nd largest purchaser of the Ford F-150 Pickup Truck
1998: Venezuela voted for a socialist President after he claimed to support a "third way", a balance between socialism and capitalism. Maria Teresa Romero, a Venezuelan who fled to the U.S., stated that Chavez's softer rhetoric was all about seizing power. "Hugo Chávez deceived people by blatantly lying," she said
1999: Chavez re-wrote the Constitution in both the masculine and feminine forms (gender inclusivity) and included rights to things like free government-provided health care, college, and "social justice". The constitution passed a popular vote with 72% of the vote. The basic structure of the constitutions followed the U.S. model – with a Presidency, a legislative branch, and a Supreme Court. However, after several Supreme Court rulings went against Chavez, in 2004 he stacked the court by passing a law to add 12 new justices – justices that he got to pick
2002: Socialists introduce the first version of their gun control policy
2004: Private healthcare is completely socialized
2006: Chavez ran for election on an overtly socialist platform, and soon after he won, he began major seizures of privately-owned property. Thousands of private businesses were nationalized – including media outlets, oil and power companies, mines, farms, banks, factories, and grocery stores
2009: Term limits are ended paving the way for Chavez to rule indefinitely
2012: Under the banner of fighting crime the socialists implement a ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition. Bernie Sanders says "Venezuelans are living the American Dream better than Americans"
2014: Opposition leaders are imprisoned
2016: Food shortages become widespread. "Socialism not only takes away from people the access to basic food and medicines, but also creates an environment in which life is worth nothing," said Giannina Raffo, who fled Venezuela in 2016 but who still works with activist organizations there
2017: Constitution and elections are suspended after a takeover of powers from the National assembly
2019: Thousands of Venezuelans are massacred by their own government under the guise of "Operations for the Liberation of the People"
In less than 20 years from the election of a socialist President and the implementation of socialist doctrines Venezuela plummeted from the 3rd richest country in the western hemisphere to the poorest with an inflation rate of 2500 percent (according to the International Monetary Fund).
Emulating the Venezuelan leadership, todays Democrats are attempting to take us down the same path. They will do anything to get what they want, they lie and cheat at every turn. They lied about Covid when they told us masks, social distancing and lockdowns would flatten the curve. They're lying about the border when they tell us most of the migrants are turned back, the surge is normal and it's not due to Biden's policies. They're lying about Afghanistan when they say they were never advised to keep troops there post withdrawal. And they're lying about the $5.5T Human Infrastructure Bill when they say that the $3B for tree planting and tree equity, the $15M for older people with sexual/gender identity issues and the free community college for illegal immigrants will not cost us a penny. In a statement that was made by Chavez himself in 1998, Pelosi stated in a speech to the U.K. that Capitalism has not served the US economy "as well as it should, what we want to do is not depart from that, but to improve it.".
Like Chavez and Maduro, it's clear they don't intend to "play by the rules" (they have gotten away with not doing so for far too long). They want to destroy America, burn it all down and rebuild it in their image – the new world order, a world of elites lording over minions.
We've sat on our backsides long enough while watching gradual changes happen before our very eyes and have done nothing. Let's not wait any longer, let's start taking back our country, one state at a time if necessary, starting now. Start by choosing and completing a simple task for the week; i.e. share this article with ten other people. Let's get moving before it's too late. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Stand Tall.
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." — Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/21/venezuela-faces-collapse-because-of-socialist-gove/
Book - COMANDANTE
Hugo Chávez's Venezuela
By Rory Carroll
302 pp. The Penguin Press. (2013)