Venezuela’s Future — and Ours | National Review

What continues to amaze me are the openly communist/socialists doing the violence at protests and getting away with it. Hope America wakes up to the never ending flow of propaganda being spewed by the MSM.

So I grew up as a military/SOUTHCOM brat, if you will. My Father had assignments in Panama, Ecuador, Panama again, and even Guatemala. I had the opportunity to visit almost every Central American country and several in the northern region of South America. In the 70s and early 80s Venezuela began it's downfall, but non one could really see it, as they still enjoyed much of the prosperity oil brought to them before it was nationalized. I also recall Colombia as the one suffering due to the inner turmoils with the FARC and their own pursuit of a socialist government. Both have essentially transposed. Eventually I found myself at SOUTHCOM during my own Air Force career, and I even took part in some of the military cooperation efforts we share with Colombia. While station in Miami for SOUTHCOM, I noted most of my neighbors on my street cam from Venezuela. Ever to this day, despite the horrible way Chavez hurt their nation, there was still a very noticeable sense of national pride. They still loved their nation and found the time and means to return so that they could vote Chavez out of office and get their country back on a path to prosperity.

Could this happen to us? Sure, with the right circumstances. Getting rid of the two party system would definitely enable that, coupled with more government control. This is why vigilance is the eternal price of freedom. Nothing wrong with national pride, as long as it's used to protect the make up of this country.