Democratic Socialism

Democratic Socialism

This is a story for Democrats, particularly Bernie, Kamela and AOC backers, and also for idealistic millennial backers of democratic socialism.  The story does not derive from loud backers of conservatism like Hannity or Ingraham on Fox News, or from conservative pundits like Rich Lowry or David French or Jonah Goldberg on National Review.  It is simply the sad story of Venezuela and its decline into socialism.

Venezuela before Hugo Chavez was one of the wealthiest countries in South America.  It had oil and mineral riches and self-sustaining agriculture.  Its per capita GDP was close to $18,000 per annum pre-Chavez.  It is about $12,000 now, but this really doesn’t tell the whole story.  People are literally starving now, and have lost an average of 20 lbs per person across the 31 million population.  Venezuela is a failed state.  People are attempting to leave.  They are being shot in the streets.

What happened?  Socialism happened, along with the ill-conceived social projects, corruption, cronyism and other trappings of Chavez’ and Maduro’s socialist governments, and the inevitable decline of socialism and communism into brutal, totalitarian regimes

Venezuela is just one recent example of the corrosive and debilitating nature of socialism/ communism, which has never been successful in the last one hundred years, and has resulted in over 100 million deaths over that period. 

Quoting a recent article in “Investors Daily”,



 “Sadly, a mere 28 years after the collapse of communism, a new generation of youth not then born or too young to understand it see that epochal event as ancient history, irrelevant to their new understanding of the world.   It seems even among adults, the lessons of the Cold War and of more than 100 years of tragic socialist history have been entirely lost.

There has never been a successful socialist government in history. None. Everywhere socialist precepts are put in place, poverty, loss of freedom and rights, and societal decline inevitably follow. Collapse is a frequent result.

Second, socialist governments are murderous. According to the "Black Book of Communism," written by French former Marxist Stephane Courtois, socialist regimes killed over 100 million people during the 20th century. No other ideology or "ism" came close to that blood-soaked record.

Whether it's the USSR, China, Cuba, Vietnam, the former East Germany, North Korea, Laos, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Venezuela or any of the other failed experiments in socialism, it's never worked anywhere. It's led only to misery, deprivation, government control and a loss of basic human rights.”

We should not be led astray by the easy mottoes of democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders, Kamela Harris and newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  “Free health care”, “free education”, “free” borders and special privileges for sub groups sound good to impressionable ears.  History shows that these are the harbingers of eventual socialist disaster.

Ray Gruszecki

October 18, 2018