Germania Rodriguez Poleo, a Venezuelan-American journalist who emigrated to the United States when she was 11 years old, grew up to vote for Bernie Sanders in support of some of the socialist policies her family fought to escape — before she recognized what she described as the “red flags” of what she once supported.
“Once I looked at the details, it looked more like Chavismo than Scandinavia[n socialism],” Poleo told Fox News Digital.
Chavismo, a socialist program “characterized by nationalism, a centralized economy, and an active military involved in public projects,” was named after autocratic leader Hugo Chávez, the movement’s founder.
“Ever since, I’ve been trying to share that message with fellow young people who truly just fall for the misinformation,” she continued.
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“[Venezuela has] done the suffering for you, we destroyed our country. Venezuela is an example for the entire world of how a democratic country can vote itself into total collapse… One vote was enough to lose our country, and who knows if we’ll ever get it back,” Poleo said.
She went on to detail “the war over what the definition of socialism is,” arguing that adding “democratic” before “socialism” creates a misleading distinction between socialist policies and the realities of life in Venezuela, Cuba and other countries.
“Socialism and capitalism are mutually exclusive — and that’s where [socialists are] lying to people,” she continued.
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“If you really talk to these DSA types, they’ll admit it — they think capitalism has failed and they want to try a different system… That’s [where] they’re lying. Social democracy is under capitalism. Socialism wants to end capitalism and that is a very, very important distinction,” Poleo revealed.
“When did I open my eyes? When the red flags became too many,” she added.
She went on to explain how she came to support candidates like Sanders, touching on the “immigrant experience” and pressure to “assimilate” to the new Western culture that surrounded her.
“It’s the same thing that’s convincing young Americans all over the United States to view socialism favorably,” she continued.
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“By the time I got to NYU, and I had fancy professors telling me that the problem wasn’t socialism, but capitalism, unchecked capitalism, repeating the horrors of trickle-down economics. [I was] going to classes like ‘the politics of inequality,’ ‘Latina feminism.’ This is what was building my world view, all taught by White American professors, of course,” Poleo recalled.
“I ended up believing their lie that what they’re talking about is social democracy, like in Scandinavian countries, and not what happened in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua,” she continued.
Poleo, the narrator of “Escaping Venezuela,” a documentary by Reason, said that the lives, experiences and memories that encompass the stories of immigrants are “not convenient” for the people who support socialism.
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“Our story and our tragedy is not convenient for people who say they care about victims of dictatorships or migrants… They don’t like our story because it shows what happens in the real world when an anti-Western, anti-U.S., supposedly anti-imperialist government gets to power and establishes socialist policies,” Poleo noted.
“They want to say that’s not real socialism, and they don’t want to listen to us. I mean, they call themselves progressives while silencing the voices of the people who understand these systems the best,” she stated.
“I want young Americans, my fellow young Americans, to understand that Venezuela did not have to end this way… Listen to the victims. Don’t insist [o]n the idea in the book that has never been put to work the ideal way that you’re still waiting for. This is socialism. This is what happens outside of the utopia little book that promises equality… The examples are there. Stop looking away,” Poleo said.