A couple of days ago, Trump made some very stupid remarks about Venezuela -- remarks that show he is either a complete moron or a liar (probably both).He said he was going to replace the socialism in Venezuela with democracy. That makes no sense at all. Democracy is not the antonym for socialism. Democracy is a form of government, while socialism is a type of economic system. While right-wingers want to deny it, the two can co-exist. A country can be both a democracy and a socialism.
And that is exactly what Venezuela is -- a socialistic democracy. They are a socialism because the government has assumed control of their natural resources (taken away from U.S. corporations) and the government provides a social safety net for its citizens. That is not a bad thing. Governments should take care of the needs of their citizens.
And they are a democracy. The government, including President Maduro, was elected by a majority of the people of Venezuela in free and fair elections (verified as fair by international observers, including Jimmy Carter). That's more than can be said for Trump (who received 3 million less votes than his opponent).
Americans have been propagandized into believing that socialism is evil and capitalism is good. The truth is that both have advantages -- although socialism provides advantages for the masses, while capitalism provides advantages for the rich and corporations. Here is the United States, we have a mixture of socialism and capitalism. Our government does not own most of our natural resources (we let corporations do that), but we have provided a socialistic safety net for many of our citizens (including Social Security, Medicare, public schools, food stamps, Pell grants, etc.).
Trump is a corporatist, and like other right-wingers, he is unhappy that American corporations can no longer steal the natural resources of Venezuela (as they do in many other countries around the world). But this is a ridiculous position. Venezuela has the right to own and control their own natural resources, and they have the right to elect their own government -- and the United States does not have the right to interfere in Venezuelan affairs.
Trump is a moron (and a liar), and he needs to leave Venezuela alone. Like the United States, they have the right of self-determination.
