I watched a very sad video from Venezuela, where the socialists who ran the country into the ground are trying to hold onto power by using violence against the people. I feel that it is important for people who were cheering for socialism in Venezuela to see for themselves what happens after socialists take power.

Here is the video:

How can the government have such little respect for the people that they were elected to serve? Answer: they can do that because they don’t think that the people can do anything about it.

Fox News explains:

As Venezuela continues to crumble under the socialist dictatorship of President Nicolas Maduro, some are expressing words of warning – and resentment – against a six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their weapons.

“Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight,” Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, told Fox News. “The government security forces, at the beginning of this debacle, knew they had no real opposition to their force. Once things were this bad, it was a clear declaration of war against an unarmed population.”

Under the direction of then-President Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2012 enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law,” with the explicit aim to “disarm all citizens.” The law took effect in 2013, with only minimal pushback from some pro-democracy opposition figures, banned the legal commercial sale of guns and munitions to all – except government entities.

Chavez initially ran a months-long amnesty program encouraging Venezuelans to trade their arms for electrical goods. That year, there were only 37 recorded voluntary gun surrenders, while the majority of seizures – more than 12,500 – were by force.

In 2014, with Nicolás Maduro at the helm following Chavez’s death but carrying through his socialist “Chavista” policies, the government invested more than $47 million enforcing the gun ban – which has since included grandiose displays of public weapons demolitions in the town square.

[…]The punishment for illicit carrying or selling a weapon now is 20 years behind bars.

I have this big quote there so that people can sort of get the picture of how socialists work. The socialists never come right out and say that they’re going to confiscate all the guns so they can run you over with an armored vehicle. They start with “gun surrender” programs, where people turn in their guns for nothing. Then they do “gun buyback” programs, where they give you back some of the money that you paid them in taxes in order to get your guns. It’s only later when they feel safe that they go door to door with armed men and confiscare the rest of the guns. At that point, there is nothing that you can do to them when they seize all the water, food, electricity, etc. for themselves. And that’s what happened in Venezuela: the rich socialist politicians have everything, the people who voted for them have nothing.

Ben Shapiro wrote about the how the socialists destroyed the Venezuelan economy in The Daily Wire from 2017.

Excerpt:

On Tuesday, Maduro dragged opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma off to prison; on Sunday, the dictatorship killed some ten people during election riots.

[…]Maduro is, of course, the successor to thug dictator Hugo Chavez, who seized power in January 1999 through election, and then proceeded to nationalize foreign oil projects, socialize virtually every other industry, institute price and wage controls, ratchet up tariffs, and entirely destroy the economy of one of the most natural-resources-blessed countries on the planet. Chavez took office with promises to end income inequality in the country. Instead, his brutish regime exacerbated poverty to the point of crisis – but at least they minimized income inequality! Just for good measure, Chavez also essentially destroyed the free press and made employment in key industries contingent on loyalty to his regime.

The consequences: no bread, no sugar, no toilet paper, ordinary citizens hunting dogs in the streets and waiting in line outside bakers not for bread, but for the ability to comb through the garbage for crumbs. Hyperinflation has set in: according to CNBC, “On Friday, $1 equaled 10,389 bolivars. Earlier this week, on Monday, it was worth 8,820 bolivars. At the start of this year, $1 equaled 3,164 bolivars, according to the unofficial exchange rate calculated by dolartoday.com, which millions of Venezuelans use.” Venezuelan hospitals lack gloves, soap, water, paper. Electrical blackouts aren’t infrequent. Caracas has become the most violent city in the Western hemisphere.

And what did all this nationalizing of industry and redistribution of wealth from productive people to non-productive people achieve?

The Daily Wire reports:

A Fox News report from journalist Hollie McKay exposed the socialism-induced horror show on the trail from Venezuela to neighboring Colombia. “Thousands upon thousands of Venezuelans pour into Colombia over the crowd cross-country bridge, their faces gaunt, carrying little more than a backpack. Rail-thin women cradle their tiny babies, and beg along the trash-strewn gutters. Teens hawk everything from cigarettes to sweets and water for small change,” McKay reports.

Malnourished girls and women are selling anything they can, including their bodies, breast milk, and hair, to survive, reports McKay. Females as young as 14 are receiving a reported seven dollars on average “per service”; a woman’s hair might be sold in exchange for a measly $10-30.

And as desperate Venezuelans hand over their papers and identification to “pimp types,” sex trafficking has become the norm. Men are selling themselves, too: straight men, some being trafficked, are performing gay sex acts in exchange for money.

[…]Last year, The Daily Beast reported that starving Venezuelans had resorted to killing pets and zoo animals for food while dictator Nicolas Maduro and his fellow chubby elites maintained access to everything they need. 

[…]Back in Venezuela, suicide is up, particularly with children and teens, health care is basically nonexistent since an estimated 55% of the nation’s medical professionals have fled the country, and at least 70% of the population are estimated to be suffering from acute malnutrition and starvation.

Venezuela elected a socialist who had zero achievements at pleasing customers. He had no experience helping people to get jobs. He had no demonstrated ability at producing more doctors, more nurses, etc. All he had was the promise that he would take from the wealthy, and give to the poor.  And now we know the result of that rhetoric for the stupid, economically-illiterate people who voted for appearances, words and feelings, instead of concrete achievements.

If you vote because someone makes you feel that your own problems are someone else’s fault, you will lose.

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