Univision Grills Sanders on Latin America’s Failed Socialism

Democratic presidential contender and avowed socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders, never can seem to articulate why he thinks economic policies that have historically failed will somehow work in the future.  [1]  As if to serve as a clear and present warning to us all — even as many are feeling the Bern here — places like Venezuela are in crisis due to policies not unlike those Sen. Sanders wants to implement here in the United States. [7] Mainstream media — particularly their Latin contingents like Telemundo and Univision — are usually on board for leftists candidates, which is why it came as a breath of fresh air when Univision’s León Krauze actually assailed Sanders’ misguided political leanings during an interview this week.  Asked to explain the failures of socialist governments in several Latin American countries, Sanders froze and abruptly changed the subject.  Listing beleaguered or once-beleaguered countries like Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, Sanders avoided answering the question and said he wanted to “focus” on his presidential campaign only. [1] “The trouble with socialism,” Margaret Thatcher once famously intoned, “is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” The problem with being a socialist, however, is explaining away the inevitable impoverishment and collapse — and worse — of countries that adopt it. [12]

Newsbusters provides the video and transcript:

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: I am sure that you know about this topic: various leftist governments, especially the populists, are in serious trouble in Latin America. The socialist model in Venezuela has the country near collapse. Argentina, also Brazil, how do you explain that failure?

BERNIE SANDERS, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: You are asking me questions…

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: I am sure you’re interested in that.

BERNIE SANDERS, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: I am very interested, but right now I’m running for President of the United States.

LEÓN KRAUZE, UNIVISION: So you don’t have an opinion about the crisis in Venezuela?

BERNIE SANDERS, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: Of course I have an opinion, but as I said, I’m focused on my campaign.

Univision and Telemundo, perhaps only because of their Latin-focus, have spent ample time covering the current crisis in Venezuela. Considering Leftists are always touting the virtues of places like Venezuela, Cuba, and other similar failed-states, and considering one such person is running for President of the United States, Univision’s line of questioning was more than fair. [1] Univision and Telemundo have actually distinguished themselves as the two principal U.S. broadcast networks that have devoted large blocks of coverage recently to the crisis of socialism in Venezuela, while thus far ABC, CBS and NBC have neglected to inform their audiences of the situation. [2] And Sanders’ refusal to answer is more than telling. Bernie Sanders is too busy selling socialism in the United States to discuss the catastrophic effects of socialism in major neighboring countries in the region like Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. How…convenient. That’s not what his history of statements in favor of Castro in Cuba, Ortega in Nicaragua, or any of his other past endorsements of socialist governments in Latin America indicate. [2] The truth is that Bernie Sanders’ response is stupidly dishonest. Running for President of the United States means having an opinion about what to do in Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Bernie hasn’t been shy about defending Socialist states in the past, but he’s too cowardly to defend the current mess in Venezuela, though he no doubt would like to. [14]

Sanders views himself as a democratic socialist. He describes his beliefs this way on his website:  “It builds on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968 when he stated that; ‘This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.”  “It builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.” [3] [9]

So much has been made of Hispanics fearing presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump for his hardcore stance on illegal immigration. Indeed, illegal immigrants — emphasis on illegal, which somehow so often is overlooked in the debate — certainly do have reason to fear a president who actually values and will enforce our nation’s rule of law. On the other hand, Hispanics who have settled in the United States legally have far more reason to fear the likes of Bernie Sanders — and others in the Democrat Socialist party, such as his rival trying to out-left him, Hillary Clinton — who want to implement policies that led to the failure of the countries they fled. These immigrants came to America for a reason — and you can bet it wasn’t seeking the failed economies and states they left behind. [7]