Perhaps the greatest quote in history on the true nature of socialism was offered by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who observed that, “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” For purposes of style we might paraphrase it as: “socialism is a great idea, until you run out of other people’s money to spend.”
The past century and a half have clearly demonstrated that people do not want socialism. They will, in fact, risk their very lives to flee it. As Europe lay in ruins in the waning days of World War II, and Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union carved up their spheres of influence, half of Europe was soon to fall under the onerous dominion of Soviet Communism.
It soon became readily apparent that those in Eastern Europe, suffering under the yoke of a completely failed ideology, got the raw end of the deal. As massive flows of people sought to live in liberty, as opposed to tyranny, the Iron Curtain was established: barbed wire, walls, machine gun turrets, observation posts, all to prevent people from escaping socialism to live in free-market economies.
Nothing was a greater example of this than the Berlin Wall, which from 1961 to 1989, divided the city into western and eastern halves. While the East German authorities, puppets for Soviet Communists, sought to portray the wall as a means to prevent ideological infiltration from the west, the reality was that it was a means to stop a massive emigration from east to west. Death was the penalty for defying the socialist authorities.
Now in Nicaragua, as well, death is the penalty for defying the socialist authorities. Daniel Ortega and his roving bands of pro-government paramilitaries, have killed 113, and injured well over a thousand. Ortega, a Sandinista revolutionary, who resumed power in the small Central American nation in 2007
Democrat socialism is a preposterous notion, as ridiculous as proposing “compassionate Nazism” or “moderate totalitarianism.” It is an ideology that has been, is now, and will always be, implemented via the end of a barrel of a gun.
Every Communist knows this, and every socialist knows this. And of course, one of the greatest socialist leaders of all time, Mao Zedong, was fond to pronounce upon the subject: “Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
It has such a catchy ring to it, that perhaps that should be the new official slogan of the Ortega regime, where Ortega has taken a page right out of Hugo Chavez’s playbook, by using violent socialist street gangs to do the dirty work that the regime can not do. This, of course, allows the dictatorships in Venezuela and Nicaragua to deny responsibility for their heinous acts in front of the international community.
Could Ortega win a democratic election were it held today? Probably not. So, without doubt, the regime is already cooking up schemes to rig the next election cycle. They will murder those who stand in their way, or imprison them, just like the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
And they will rely on the support of the last hardcore Marxist regimes remaining in the region: comrade Evo Morales in Bolivia, and the Cuban dictatorship, which has ostensibly now given power to new “president” Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The parallels between Ortega and his ideological comrades in Venezuela and Cuba are many; this is readily apparent when one examines the curious case of the ex-Sandinistas and dissident Sandinistas. Many who were fervent believers in the cause, and overthrowing the brutal Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s, have now become disillusioned with Ortega, just as many of Castro and Chavez’s allies abandoned them when the stated ideological objectives became subordinated to greed, corruption, and abuse of office.
Ortega is a “socialist” when it comes to how he wants every one else to live, but he is a firm believer in crony capitalism when it comes to his own life. He has amassed a fortune estimated to be USD $50 million (although believed by many to be much more) through insider self-dealing and corruption, particularly funneling business deals through himself via lucrative Venezuelan aid, during the petro-state’s heyday.
Needless to say, Venezuela is no longer able to funnel such aid to ideological soulmate Ortega.
As it stands now, the Nicaraguan people are stuck between a rock and a hard place: they can be complacent and silent and allow Daniel Ortega to steal from the public coffers, run Nicaragua like his own private personal fiefdom, and do away with all democratic checks and balances, as he paves the way for his wife and “vice president” Rosario Murillo to take power in a sham election.
Or, they can risk their safety and their very lives, and continue to take to the streets to demand that Ortega and his corrupt thugs step down from power.
Ortega encapsulates a popular social media slogan about Latin American socialist leaders: Think Like Marx, Govern Like Stalin, Live Like Rockefeller.
Nicaragua is just the latest example that socialism has been, is now, and will always be, enforced with force in the face of popular unrest.
Article by first appeared at Panampost.com. Read the original.
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