People are dying in still small numbers in Venezuela as protests against Maduro's leadership continue:
Protesters battled soldiers in the streets of Caracas again on Wednesday as three more fatal shootings raised to 25 the death toll from a month of demonstrations against Venezuela's socialist government.
Protesters focus on the abuse of power:
"Today we're marching to denounce the repression. There can't be impunity. Why do they attack us when we are demonstrating freely? The security forces are bowing to a political ideology when their duty is to protect the people," said law student Agnly Veliz, 22, at the opposition rally.
But too many accept the abuse of power as an acceptable price because they focus on real improvements made for the poorest:
"The opposition are causing all the violence. They should think a bit smarter. The street barricades make no sense, they just bring violence," said government supporter Marcos Alacayo, 46, among hundreds of 'Chavistas' at a square in east Caracas.
"They're trying to make out the nation is in a bad state, but that just isn't true. More people have access to healthcare, education and good food than ever. That's what they don't understand. Before Chavez, no one had what we have now," added Alacayo, who works for a state-run higher education program.
As long as too many Venezuleans agree with that analysis, Maduro can hold on to power with a security force that remains loyal.
Too many of our own leftists agree with that Chavista. I guess our leftists haven't digested President Obama's advice that it is a false choice to say we can have security or freedom:
"What I've said, and I continue to believe, is that we don't have to sacrifice our freedom in order to achieve security. That's a false choice. That doesn't mean that there are not tradeoffs involved in any given program, in any given action that we take," Obama told Rose. "To say there's a tradeoff doesn't mean somehow that we've abandoned freedom."
But that's what is happening. People are judging that access to healthcare, education, and food justifies lack of freedom.
Sure, the president was speaking of physical security and foreign threats being weighed against domestic surveillance, but living standard security counts, too. And the Ben Franklin quote this alludes to probably meant the freedom of a free legislature to exercise power--which definitely applies.
Yet too many Venezuleans believe that living in an increasingly dictatorial state is a price they are willing to pay for material advances in their own lives--even if that will disappear as the ability to loot the economy runs out.
Why aren't Venezuleans asking why they have to make such a choice before they find they have neither freedom nor better standards of living?
UPDATE: Speaking of Western idiots who Maduro finds useful:
Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro insists that the stability of Venezuela "is the social and economic guarantee" for the entirety of South America. The Venezuelan leader also admitted that he asked actor Sean Penn to help spread his message in the United States.
How is being an errand boy for a thug idiot somehow appealing?
