20 or so years ago, a wealthy and prosperous nation, but unequal on many levels, elected a socialist named Hugo Chavez.
The left loved him - Sean Pen and the rest gushed over this guy who promised a new third way. A combination of socialism and capitalism that would be the envy of the world.
It sounded great on paper, but ended in a disaster as Chavez, drunk on power, slowly killed off the free market aspect of his new plan.
He could not control the free market so it was gradually replaced with the state, something Chavez could control every aspect of.
Money fled the country and investment dried up and worse, the people realized that it did not matter how hard they worked or how talented they were - subservience to the state was the only thing that mattered if you wanted to get ahead.
The plan failed miserably. Because that model has always failed. And will always fail. It has nothing to do with America, Ilhan.
From BPR:
Embattled Dem. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar found a sympathetic outlet yesterday when she was interviewed by far-left Democracy Now! about the situation in Venezuela. She took full advantage and astonishingly laid blame on the United States for the collapse of socialism there and the tragic repercussions being borne by Venezuela’s people.
Prior to Omar’s interview, the Democracy Now! program interviewed Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, a progressive globalist and economist who made similar claims.
“I concur with what Professor Sachs was saying,” Omar said.
“You know, I mean, a lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastations in Venezuela. And we’ve sort of set the stage for where we’re arriving today.
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.
And I think, finally, we have folks in Congress that see what Professor Sachs was referencing.
“I think, for so long, we’ve used muscle memory to sort of generate our foreign policy,” continued Omar. “And it’s about time, like Professor Sachs said, that we pause and we look at the kind of implications that our policies have, what our ultimate goal is, what is being successful, and what are some policies that we should do away with.
I remember talking to Madam Secretary Albright and talking to her about the success of sanctions we impose around the world and how some of them have devastating effects on the actual population and not on the governments that we see as our adversaries.
And she concurred with me that many of the sanctions that we impose ultimately lead to devastations — and we are seeing it now in Venezuela — and ultimately lead to having severe problems in that country, which doesn’t stabilize life for the people, and certainly puts us here in the United States at risk.”
Enter Nikki Haley:
.@IlhanMN the avg Venezuelan adult has lost 24 lbs. Babies have no medicine. Families have to walk miles in the heat to get the only meal they may have that day. All bc of the corrupt Maduro regime. Your comments are so far from the truth. Cuba and Russia appreciate your support. https://t.co/o1ADtlwrtN
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) May 1, 2019
