Venezuelans Celebrate The Demise Of Collectivism While New Yorkers Embrace Its ‘Warmth’

 

"You have to marvel at the sequence of events we just experienced. On Jan. 1, a socialist was sworn in as mayor of New York, promising the “warmth of collectivism.” On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump announced that he’d forcibly removed Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, ending the country’s 23-year embrace of socialism.

"We will leave it to the pundits, the lawyers, politicians, and various other “experts” to debate the merits of Trump’s action.

"But what we can’t let happen is for the left and the mainstream media to ignore or downplay just how tragic Venezuela’s embrace of collectivism has been.

"So, we thought we’d do our readers a service and republish an editorial we wrote more than six years ago, in which we detailed the cold, hard truths about socialism. The situation in Venezuela had only deteriorated further in the years after this editorial ran."

Venezuela: A Humanitarian Crisis The Left Couldn’t Care Less About

"You can bet that the next time a country tries to enact Venezuela-style socialist policies, the left will be cheering it on. Until disaster inevitably strikes and it suddenly loses all interest."

"Try to imagine this scenario. A once-wealthy country spirals downward over the course of several years into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Starvation and violence are rampant. The economy has collapsed. Millions have already fled. And all the while, an autocratic ruler acts with complete indifference, when he’s not trying to crush dissent and blame other countries for the misery he’s inflicting on his own. 

"Under normal circumstances, there would be regular protests in Washington. Hollywood actors would be busy creating tear-jerker videos and making emotional award ceremony speeches. Musicians would be putting on global benefit concerts. The corruption, desperation and daily human misery would be above the fold in newspapers and leading the nightly news. It would be on everyone’s mind. 

"But in this case, the catastrophic suffering is being almost completely ignored. Why? Because it’s happening in Venezuela — a socialist state that the left has for years championed and now refuses to admit has been a monumental failure.

“ 'Much of the Western left, including those who once had only kind words for (Hugo) Chávez and his successors, is treating Venezuela as an embarrassment best brushed under the carpet,” James Bloodworth writes in Foreign Policy. 

"It is almost impossible to describe what’s happening in Venezuela today. " . . . More...