Last week the socialist country, Venezuela, entered into the final stage of the leftist utopia, when they made the transition from oppressive government to full blown dictatorship. Venezuela began its journey to hell in 1998, when the progressive folk hero Hugo Chavez first took office. Before Hugo, Venezuela was a flourishing country that was the richest in South America. Because of their success, Hugo was able to convince the Venezuelan people that redistribution of wealth for all was the best course of action. 19 years later, these same citizens are standing in food lines, eating their pets, and living a life closer to North Koreans than Americans.
Today, progressives really make an effort in trying to avoid talking about Venezuela and its collapse. It’s a very touchy subject for them, because the ideology that ruined Venezuela is the very ideology that they want here in the United States. When forced to talk about Venezuela, they’ll use a sleight of hand where they’ll claim that Venezuelan policy is not what they want here in the US and what they want is closer to Denmark or Sweden.
The truth is that up until 2011, Venezuela and Hugo Chavez were spoken in higher regard than Sweden and Denmark by the left. Leftist constantly pointed to Venezuela as the pinnacle of what the United States should be. Bernie Sanders, Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sean Penn, Michael Moore and many other leftists spoke of Venezuela as if it was an inspiration to the world. Bernie Sanders used to praise Venezuela regularly and spoke higher of Hugo Chavez than he did of his true hero Karl Marx.
However, the left has faced very little criticism, if any, for supporting such an utter failure. Even when confronted, they give some half-baked excuse of why it didn’t work. They then will imply that if they had Hugo’s power, then things would be different. Quickly, they’ll then move on to pushing the same ideology that they did before. Even as another country has been added to the statistics of countries have fallen victim to progressive ideology.
The left has never really faced the criticism that they deserve, when supporting things that went awry. Why hasn’t the left ever called out on supporting the migration policies of Europe that lead to the increase in terrorism, rape and murder? Why aren’t leftist like George Clooney being confronted for supporting Europe’s open borders and chastising the US for not doing more, but subsequently moving back to the US, from England, because of fear of terrorism? Why hasn’t Bernie Sanders been confronted about supporting the Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Nicaragua?
Progressives constantly rail on capitalism and its flaws. They rip conservatives for any failures whether they’re true or not. Yet, the list of progressive support for evil and failure is far more extensive. They supported Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini before WWII and Mao Zedong after. They supported the Soviet Union before its inevitable collapse. They pushed their policies in major cities like Detroit, which went from the richest to the poorest in the exact time that democrats took control. They praised Venezuela and Nicaragua while denigrating the US. They praised Mexico’s ban on guns, which lead to the rise in drug lords and Mexico becoming one of the most violent places on earth. It seems that everything the left touches turns to ash.
Why are these people, who are constantly wrong, allowed to continue to make predictions and set policy? In the working world, no one would stay employed very long if all their work failed and all their projections were grossly inaccurate. Yet, the left is allowed to continue to make bold predictions and set policies without having to suffer the consequences when they fail.
Members of the right, or anyone that doesn’t believe in big government redistribution, needs to do a better job of confronting the left. We need to point out their failures and force them to suffer the consequences of when they are wrong.
We need to do it for two reasons: First, it allows the voting population to see the very large flaws of progressive thought. Secondly, it forces the left to have to actually think through what they’re saying. All the left’s ideas sound good in theory, but they aren’t well thought out. The reason is because leftists are given a pass and not forced to think about the potential consequences of their ideas.
I’ve compiled a list of tactics that non-Marxist can use to try and quell the onslaught of stupidity that makes up the progressive ideology:
First and foremost, we need to point out all the times they were wrong. When someone starts speaking of socialism you first point out Venezuela. When they respond with, “well it wasn’t done right,” you simply say, “then why did your leaders support them if it wasn’t being done correctly?” Also, what would you do differently? Finally, when they point to Denmark and Sweden you respond by saying, “there hasn’t been enough time to see how Denmark and Sweden will turn out, but why should we trust your new examples when all the left’s previous examples have failed?”
Secondly, we need to force them to have accountability if there are wrong. We should ask politicians, “what is your predicted outcome of this policy in the next 10 years?” Then we should ask, “Will you resign if you are wrong? Or at least admit that this policy was a failure and end it? Will you go in a different direction if the outcome you are trying to achieve is wrong?” Politicians make such bold moves because they are never held accountable for the terrible outcomes of their ideas.
Finally, for the entire left, not just politicians, we need to force them to all progressives to live where there ideas are most affluent. When George Clooney calls for more Muslim immigration, we must tell him that your opinion doesn’t matter unless you live among refugees or admit that you were wrong. We need to force all the politicians that passed Obamacare health coverage to use that insurance and should get no special treatment. We must ask why don’t they live in places where progressive policies are most used, like Venezuela or Detroit. We must point out their hypocrisy, when they move from California to Texas and try to push the very ideology that sunk California in the first place.
The left never has to face the consequences of their complete and utter failings. This allows them to continue and call for their utopian vision even though it has consistently lead to utter poverty and despair. We need to do a better job at confronting their failures, and force progressives to have to really think about why their ideology has such a poor track record. If we can achieve this, then maybe the left won’t be the force that kills off the west from within.
