The article wasn't about US intervention in Venezuela, it was about what the authoritarian politics of Venezuela that are being replicated all over the world result in.
Venezuela is the endgame of ideological Marxism; the culmination of the assault on democracy, courts, and the press now unfolding in so many countries; and the outer limit of the politics of polarization.
The article wasn't about US intervention in Venezuela, it was about what the authoritarian politics of Venezuela that are being replicated all over the world result in.
I'll admit the author's pretty badly judgmental of leftism and an unironic buyer of "COMMUNISM NO FOOD", but I feel the article is more about general authoritarianism and corruption than any...
I'll admit the author's pretty badly judgmental of leftism and an unironic buyer of "COMMUNISM NO FOOD", but I feel the article is more about general authoritarianism and corruption than any specific political ideology.
An article on how Venezuela's fall to illiberalism, corruption and later outright authoritarianism resembles other countries today. The Republicans are following this playbook pretty well with...
An article on how Venezuela's fall to illiberalism, corruption and later outright authoritarianism resembles other countries today.
If some elements of recent Venezuelan history sound amazingly like a replay of Soviet history, other elements strongly resemble the more recent histories of Russia, Turkey, and other illiberal nationalist regimes whose leaders slowly chipped away at civil rights, rule of law, democratic norms, and independent courts.
Democracy became weaker in the 1990s, thanks to widespread corruption linked to the oil industry. Chávez was the one who broke the rule of law completely. His first attempt to take power was via a coup d’état, in 1992. He won a legitimate election in 1998, but once in power he slowly changed the rules, eventually making it almost impossible for anyone to beat him. In 2004, he packed the Supreme Court; in 2009, he altered the electoral system.
The Republicans are following this playbook pretty well with gerrymandering and the withdrawal of that SCOTUS justice.
Chávez began to transfer the wealth of the country to his cronies. This process was extraordinarily well documented, in real time, by many people. A Foreign Affairs article about Chávez in 2006 spoke of “blatant violations of the rule of law and the democratic process.” A 2008 article in the same publication noted that “neither official statistics nor independent estimates show any evidence that Chávez has reoriented state priorities to benefit the poor.”
Venezuelan writer Moisés Naím has described his country’s political system as a “loose confederation of foreign and domestic criminal enterprises with the president in the role of mafia boss,” which makes it sound very much like Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In Caracas, I sat in a room full of people who were debating just exactly how much money the regime had stolen—$200 billion? $600 billion?—a parlor game that gets played in Moscow too.
Here on Brazil this also happens frequently, although much further out of sight AFAIK.
At the height of his power, Chávez appeared every Sunday on his own surreal, unscripted reality-television program, called Aló Presidente. He would interview supporters, hire and fire ministers, insult people, even declare war while on air, using television much as President Trump uses Twitter, to shock and entertain, sometimes continuing for many hours. Chávez made up names for his enemies—“El Diablo” was one of several for President George W. Bush—and he was vulgar and rude. These traits convinced people that he was “authentic.” Just as Trump used to shout “You’re fired” as a kind of punch line on The Apprentice, Chávez would shout “Exprópiese!” at buildings and property, supposedly owned by rich people, that he intended to expropriate.
The article wasn't about US intervention in Venezuela, it was about what the authoritarian politics of Venezuela that are being replicated all over the world result in.
Many Venezuelans who want to be sovereign feel this way also and are harassed, jailed and sometimes killed under the current regime.
I'll admit the author's pretty badly judgmental of leftism and an unironic buyer of "COMMUNISM NO FOOD", but I feel the article is more about general authoritarianism and corruption than any specific political ideology.
An article on how Venezuela's fall to illiberalism, corruption and later outright authoritarianism resembles other countries today.
The Republicans are following this playbook pretty well with gerrymandering and the withdrawal of that SCOTUS justice.
Here on Brazil this also happens frequently, although much further out of sight AFAIK.
This is also very descriptive of Trump.