Battle4Liberty

If you have been following my blog, the ongoing chaos in Venezuela was entirely predictable. It remains the most underreported story on legacy media.

Here’s an abbreviated storyline: Nicolás Maduro recently won reelection in a sham vote. Two weeks after he was sworn in for a second term, Juan Guiadó assumed the interim presidency, citing constitutional authority that permits the head of the National Assembly to create an interim government and plan for new elections. The Trump administration immediately recognized Guiadó’s authority and instituted economic sanctions targeting Maduro. Guiadó has received support from most other nations as well, but Maduro has the backing of the military and hasn’t budged. Guiadó’s politics are largely moderate to left-of-center by American standards, but he supports free speech, private property, and other basic constitutional rights. His claim to the presidency is legitimate.

Venezuela was prosperous prior to Hugo Chávez’s election in 1998. The Chávez and Maduro regimes have looted and destroyed the nation in just two decades. The current situation is chaotic and heart-wrenching. Poverty is rampant. Stores are empty while many citizens scour garbage for food. Inflation is well above 100,000%. Hospitals lack basic medicine. All of this is occurring in a nation with the world’s greatest oil reserves.

Going forward, there are 3 takeaways from the situation in Venezuela:

1. Where leaders are elected, Marxism begins with class warfare and an attack on private property. It ends with control, corruption, widespread poverty and despotism. Venezuela is a textbook case of this reality.
2. Some Americans actively supported Chávez until he “ran out of other people’s money” and things began to unravel. Whenever socialism fails, the left blames corrupt leaders, not corrupt ideas. The problem in Venezuela—like Cuba, North Korea and the former USSR—is bad ideas, not just bad people.
3. If applied, the bad ideas applied in Venezuela would reap havoc in the US. I wouldn’t expect the same degree of destitution, but the impact on our society could be severe. Don’t be deceived into thinking a “middle ground” is a solution and what has happened elsewhere couldn’t happen here. Whatever you think of President Trump, keep this in mind as you evaluate the rhetoric from Democrats who seek to unseat him in 2020.

It’s unclear how the current standoff in Venezuela will end, but a civil war is not out of the question. Let’s hope and pray that Maduro exits without mass bloodshed.

The Acton Institute posted a compelling interview with an economist in Caracas earlier this week if you want to see what’s going on there firsthand (https://livestream.com/ActonInstitute/VenezuelaInterview/videos/186483002).