Debbie D’Souza, from Venezuela, Demolishes Leftist Arguments Regarding Socialism in America

One common theme, among leftists arguing for socialism, is that it was not properly implemented in the other countries. However, those planing it in the US have a practical way to make it workable in the United States. Debbie D’Souza, is originally from Venezuela and has family there. She has seen what socialism has done there, and showcases it to us as a cautionary tale.

Transcript of the video, “They say Scandinavia, but they mean Venezuela” by Debbie D’Souza for Prager University:

Venezuela, where I was born and still have family, bad. Cuba, bad. Zimbabwe, bad. Soviet Union, bad. China under Mao, bad. Sweeden, Denmark, Norway, good.

This is the socialist report card as it currently stands. Never mind that Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China were once good! Once they go bad, they stay bad and are quickly forgotten. Lost down the memory hole. But those Nordic paradises, they never let you down.

Whenever Bernie, The Squad, and the growing horde of Democratic Socialists ever get cornered, there’s always, “Like Denmark…” to come to the rescue. “No, no, we don’t want anything like what’s going on in Venezuela, Denmark is what we have in mind!”

Except, they don’t. And it’s time we all figure this out before it is too late. Here’s what you need to know about Scandinavian countries. They are capitalist in wealth creation and socialist in wealth distribution. They have low corporate taxes, around 20%, no higher than in America.

Unlike America, neither Norway, nor Sweden, nor Denmark, has a government set minimum wage. Most make it very easy to start a new business. Most have private health care and education options. Yes, the Nordic countries have an expansive welfare state, but everyone pays into the system. Rich, middle class, and poor.

Nobody escapes the taxman because nobody escapes the 25% value-added tax. The sales tax, a tax on what you buy, is regressive. Meaning, it falls much more heavily, percentage of income-wise, on the poor and on the middle class than it does on the rich.

This concept is a complete nonstarter for American socialists, who want only the rich to pay more! Even though America’s tax system is already steeply progressive. The rich, the top 10 percent, pay about 70% of all income taxes. But for the socialists, it never seems to be enough.

So, if the American left has rejected the Scandinavian model, which model is it embracing? Where, where do the leading figures of the American left, from Sean Penn to Michael Moore and Bill Ayers go when they want to praise socialism? Here’s a hint: When was the last time you saw Bernie in Copenhagen?

First, it was the Soviet Union. Then it was Cuba. Then it was Venezuela. Venezuelan socialism, like current American socialism, is based on sowing social division. The left in Venezuela divided the country not merely between the rich and the poor, but white and black or brown-between Europeans, Africans, and indigenous people. Hugo Chavez made much of his black and Indian roots.

Venezuelan socialists were bringing down statues of Columbus long before American leftists did. Once you establish the villain class, taking away their wealth is not hard to do. Whatever Chavez and now his successor Nicolas Maduro wanted, they took — or, if you care about moral clarity, they stole-always, like the French and Russian Revolutions, in the name of “equality.”

It didn’t start out that way, of course. It never does. Chavez portrayed himself as a moderate in his early presidential campaigns. Expropriations came later. What Chavez and Maduro achieved at the end of a gun, the American Left would achieve through extremely high taxation on income, wealth, and inheritance.

But we shouldn’t leave guns out of the discussion. In 2010, Venezuelan socialists started a campaign to disarm law-abiding citizens under the guise of stopping gun violence. They called it “Desarma la violencia”. When citizens, now unarmed, began to protest the corruption and tyranny of the socialist government, Chavez and then Maduro unleashed a group of criminal thugs-the collectivos — to terrorize them. Their specific targets included small business owners, entrepreneurs, farmers, and clergy. There are no colectivos or Antifa in Scandinavia.

Venezuela is now a cautionary tale. All the people you see on the news rummaging through garbage cans or standing in line to get food, toilet paper, and gas-those are the ordinary citizens. The country’s leaders aren’t missing any meals. The socialist elite, the so-called Chavistas, eat in fine restaurants and go on European vacations. Miraculously, it always works out that way.

The American Left keeps telling us they want to take us to Stockholm, but its policies point in the direction of Caracas. My birth country was once prosperous and free, but socialism destroyed it. Take heed America.

I’m Debbie D’Souza for Prager University.

Category: Guest Link, Guest Post, Politics, Society