Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...

"Dictatorship is dictatorship whether from the right or left." Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)

I was reading a rather scary article today about Venezuela. According to the article, which is a product of Fox and so not entirely above suspicion, certain far left democrats are agnostic if not outrightly pro Nicolás Maduro, the country's socialist dictator.

These people include Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ro Khanna, Rashida Tlaib, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders.

As the country’s problems worsen, Democratic Venezuelan-Americans question whether their party’s actions go far enough. A growing number of exiles say they feel forgotten by a new generation of outspoken, progressive Democrats, leaving them less beholden to a party they had long supported.
Issues that for years were hotly debated in an area of Miami known as "Doral-zuela" due to its vibrant Venezuelan community, have made their way to the ears of some of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
The Venezuelans are angry that, as the country continues to spiral, some Democrats keep calling on the U.S. to pull out of Venezuela and lift all sanctions against the government.
“This is where the Democrats have consistently dropped the ball…they have never felt like it was an important issue…it's very difficult to feel and coexist in the same party that is saying these things are so ignorant about my homeland,” said Venezuelan immigrant Helena Poleo.

This new rapprochement from the American left towards Maduro makes me feel very ill. I sympathize with these emigrants. This Venezuelan government and its predecessor have been a disaster for their country and the western hemisphere in every way. Chavez and Maduro have established a beachhead for Iran and international terror in the west. They are now a  bastion of anti-semitism.

They are also regularly using death squads against their own people. Amnesty International accused Maduro of being responsible for at least 8292 extrajudicial executions in his country, a number that is now surely much higher.

Hugo Chavez silenced the opposition and the media, nationalized all the productive industries and declared himself President for life. Maduro has made things even worse. I have written about the disaster that is Venezuela for many years. Unfortunately much of the worst of it was under Obama's watch and enabled by his laissez faire attitude towards the socialist dictatorship.

Bernie Sanders has hired Hugo Chavez's own speechwriter apologist David Sirota, as a Senior Advisor. This is where I get off the bus. The new progressive radical wing of the Democratic party is going to lose this stalwart centrist in very short order if this is the way things are going to be.