ndrosen

The wise and eloquent Professor Ilya Somin has a piece pointing out that Venezuela illustrates the perils of democratic socialism. That South American country was, despite its flaws, a functioning democracy with some degree of prosperity; then it elected Hugo Chavez. He and his successor have largely ended democracy, and created such dire poverty as to cause millions of people to flee the country. This is no accident, comrades; although non-socialist governments can also be corrupt and authoritarian, socialism makes it easy for a government to deny its opponents the ability to hold jobs and feed their families.

My opposition to socialism does not make me any admirer of fascists, either. I am thinking here of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, which has sent me appeals for money, saying that many young Americans have a favorable view of socialism, and promising to fight this tendency. One email offered to send me a book purportedly written by Marjorie Taylor Green. Not some respectable Republican statesman or distinguished conservative thinker, but that Congresswench, who is either batty, or pretending to be so, because speaking like a lunatic is what wins GOP primaries and sometimes general elections these days.