Venezuela Socialism and The American Democrat Party

A piece from National Review in December 31, 2015.  More empirical evidence that leftist (neo-liberal, democrat) quasi-socialist to socialist policies do not work.

"Venezuelans, having noticed that the cupboard is bare, have turned against Chavismo, delivering the national assembly to the opposition parties in the recent elections.  Venezuela, which has pursued the sort of economic policies that Bernie Sanders dreams of, have faced shortages of everything from food staples to toilet paper.  The opposition has promised a degree of economic liberalization and the release of political prisoners, opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez prominent among them.  Between the opposition and its aims stands President Nicolas Maduro, a protege of Hugo Chavez who has done much to immiserate (make poor) his people.

Maduro already is working to stop reform: he has declared that he simply will refuse to comply with any law that releases political prisoners and is seeking a "labor stabilization" law that would forbid firms from firing any employees so long as Maduro is president.  (What is spanish for "I have a pen and a phone" ?) [i.e. Barak Obama].  Venezuela once was the world's 4th wealthiest country, and it enjoys vast natural resources, particularly oil and gas.  Its penury is an entirely man-made disaster.  The United States of America should do what it can for Venezuela's reformers (center-right political party), but we should also remember how popular Chavez and his [leftist] ideas were among our own Democrats, such as Chaka Fattah and Jimmy Carter, and among so-called liberals such as Sean Penn, Michael Moore, and Oliver Stone.  Chavez and Maduro build the world they dream of, and it is a hungry prison camp.

Like the USA, the different political interest groups form two blocks of political power.  There is the communist and socialist left: United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).  And there is the Movement for Democratic Unity [democratic as in democracy, not leftist USA democrat party] or "MUD" which is the conservative block party in 2015.   3 seats in the Assembly went to indigenous people representatives with no party affiliation among the main two blocks.  So you have the right-wing (MUD) and the left-wing (PSUV) notably but loosely similar to the USA (democrat left vs republican right).

Quote of the day: 

"I hate him !  said Farida Lazareva, 57, of New York City, in 2016 speaking of Bernie Sanders....."If you lived under socialists, you'd hate them too.  They make everyone poor. [...] If it will be Sanders, we will have the same here [in the USA].  Everybody who comes from a communist country, Russians, Eastern Europeans, even Latinos from Cuba, feel this way.  When you know what will happen, when you see it, you [become] Republican."