Posted on 12/19/2018 11:03:07 AM PST by Hojczyk
"There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin!"
That was June 1963 in West Berlin where President John F. Kennedy gave one of his most memorable addresses. The speech was a stirring defense of liberty and a pointed critique of communism.
Whether you agree with Kennedy broadly or narrowly, I've rediscovered that speech and find it to relate now more than ever to the unfolding drama in the country of my birth, Venezuela. My family and I left Venezuela when I was 10. We had every intention of returning. Then Hugo Chavez took power, promising to usher in shared prosperity for all with his "21st century socialism." We never went back.
Kennedy's words should be a wake-up call to my fellow Americans, and especially to his fellow Democrats, as I see more millennials rejecting capitalism and embracing socialism as "the wave of the future." So, when Teen Vogue tweeted recently, "Can't #endpoverty without ending capitalism!" my initial reaction was, "Let them come to Venezuela."
Venezuela was once the most prosperous country in Latin America, but today almost 90% of its population lives in poverty. Venezuela's economy is in shambles. Recently, Venezuela's own government released a report showing that its annual inflation rate accelerated to a whopping 833,000% in October alone.
Socialism: Despair And Misery
In practical terms, Venezuela's misery means that it is not uncommon to see children rummaging through the garbage for food. And as basic medical supplies and medicine run dangerously low, newborns and the elderly die unattended in Venezuelan hospitals.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Worth the read
Venezuela’s Lesson
Let Salt Bae come to Venezuela.
My family and I are among the fortunate. We left Venezuela well before the worst of it took hold and were able to stay away. But others in my extended family have not been so fortunate. For them, life is a daily struggle. It helps explain why anywhere from 1.6 million to 2 million Venezuelans are expected to leave this year alone.
Socialism has destroyed the country of my birth, and it would be wrong to believe it couldn’t happen here. So, when you hear politicians preaching the wonders of socialism in any of its forms, think of my family.
So again I say, let them come to Venezuela. They will not like what they see.
Malave is spokesperson at Americans for Prosperity.
My new neighbors are from Venezuela...................
We will get to see it for ourselves right here soon enough.
Bkmrk.
We have some good friends who left Venezuela when Chavez got into power. They saw the handwriting on the wall back then.
I’m afraid so.
BHO knew the secret handshake. He is just so cool.
But but but Venezuela isn’t a “real” socialist economy. Isn’t this what these commies love to say whenever one of these utopias devolve into a dystopia?
Hey, but at least the dictator that they love so much gets to live like a king, right?
Last night I watched and ASXYS show that documented a Billy Gibbons(of ZZ Top) trip to Havana where he and a put together band did a couple of shows. You can tell from the footage that Havana was once a prosperous and, from an architectural perspective, beautiful city. Decay and disrepair is widespread. You can see that most people are desperately poor. Socialism and Marxism is utter nonsense . . . foolishness . . . ignorance. If you lift a finger to look, that is very easy to determine. This generation of young folks need to wake up and understand they are being sold snake oil.
Socialism has been the "wave of the future" for enough of the past now to offer a fairly clear conclusion that it will always succeed in the future and never in the present. The only thing that socialism succeeds brilliantly in producing in abundance is excuses.
Its acolytes are nothing if not stubborn, though. Prior to "let them come to Venezuela" was "let them come to Cuba" and we saw a steady stream of starry-eyed left-wingers get a Potemkin Village tour of what Castro wanted them to see and declare a workers' paradise: 100% literacy, 100% modern medical care, prosperity and brotherhood for all, when the reality was perfectly visible and the illusion nearly impossible to maintain without shutting their eyes and stopping their ears. Michael Moore, anyone? This has not changed with the opening of tourism to that miserable island except that the stream of eager True Believers has dwindled to a trickle. The two-tiered economy and exploitative tourism that so oppressed Cuba under Batista is now...well, it's actually back. And it happened under socialism.
So don't expect very many Millennials or anyone else without a solid ground in history to ignore the fantasy-world promises and embrace the society that has made them wealthy beyond the dreams of any medieval king. The Left has succeeded in changing the standards to perfection for present society and no standards at all for the ones they've screwed up in the past. Those, we are told, need to be denied, marginalized, or excused, "debunked", reconsidered, or simply ignored, which is precisely what they intend to do with the mistakes of the present. What a pity you can't eat dreams and noble slogans.
I am old enough to remember big vacations to venezuela were popular prizes on the Price is Right
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