The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Friday, January 25, 2019

The end of a nightmare for Venezuela?

The too far left of the Democratic Party is stooging for Maduro and already damning a coup that hasn't happened and the US for supporting it.

The Venezuelan military isn't going to dump Maduro.

His civilian political opponents, committed to legitimate republican government far more than he is, are trying to.

Trump of course does not give a fig for legitimate republican government.

His only concern is the truly epically failing, utterly incompetent quasi-socialism of the Bolivarian Revolution, more aspirational than real, that's wrecked the Venezuelan economy.

That is true as well of these too far leftists.

The only difference is he wants the socialist chaos to end and they want to protect it.

New liberals in Congress call Trump’s Venezuela action ‘a U.S. backed coup’

It is in no way a surprise that the also too far left Bernie also opposes any suggestion of US interference in Venezuela.

Three members of Congress, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, have released statements condemning the U.S. action in Venezuela, which so far amounts to the recognitio of Guaidó, $20 million in humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan opposition and the threat of further action if Nicolas Maduro, whom the administration sees as an illegitimate president, resorts to violence.

. . . .

The position of Gabbard, Khanna and Omar is not shared by a majority of Democrats in Congress, including congressional leaders. 

. . . .

The U.S. is not alone in its decision to recognize Guaidó. 

The United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and Colombia, and most other Latin American nations have also recognized the opposition leader. 

China, Russia, Turkey, Cuba and Bolivia are opposed to the decision, while Mexico, Uruguay and the European Union have called for more dialogue.

Gabbard, a noted opponent of U.S. involvement in foreign countries who is running for president in 2020, also opposed the decision.

“The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela,’ Gabbard tweeted. 

“Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders — so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

. . . .

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is mulling a 2020 presidential bid of his own, condemned recent events in Venezuela but also said the U.S. should “not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups.” 

His comments condemning Venezuela’s economic situation drew criticism from some of his supporters.

“We must learn the lessons of the past and not be in the business of regime change or supporting coups — as we have in Chile, Guatemala, Brazil & the DR, [Domincan Republic]” Sanders said in a statement. 

“The US has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American nations; we must not go down that road again.”

South Florida Democrats, including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, whose districts have significant numbers of Venezuelans, are supportive of the administration’s steps and have introduced bills that would hinder Maduro’s ability to obtain arms and sell oil. 

Mucarsel-Powell also spoke at a pro-Venezuela opposition rally on Wednesday in Washington, and Wasserman Schultz is hosting an event with Venezuelan community leaders in her district on Friday.

The Democratic Socialists of America, which count U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as members, also called the decision to recognize Guaidó a “U.S.-backed coup.”

Former U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo pointed out to Omar that Guaidó’s political party, Popular Will, is described as center-left or center. Guaido’s party includes the first transgender congresswoman elected in Latin America, and party leader Leopoldo Lopez remains under house arrest by Maduro’s regime.

“You’d think a progressive would be a little more supportive. But no, the sick obsession w/ Donald Trump is blinding,” Curbelo tweeted.

Curbelo is wrong.

It's not about Trump, it's about the further left's genuine commitment to socialism.

And by "socialism" here I mean the real thing and not the so-called "social democracy" that represents a penchant within liberalism for moderate increases in the dosage of public provision of goods or services within a fundamentally capitalist society.

Think of Bernie's signature agenda items, Medicare for All and free tuition for undergrads at public colleges and universities.

As for the DSA, of which I was for a time a member, even in the days of Michael Harrington, himself personally an anti-Communist and supporter of the US in the Vietnam War, the organization always had a strong wing that prioritized socialism - real socialism, collective ownership of the means of production - over democracy so far that they defended every one of the Latin American socialist dictatorships and every effort to create new ones.

Not to mention Mao and Soviet Russia.

In short, they were Leninists, Communists, who lied about what they were.

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