Sadly we do not always get what we vote for. Donald Trump has
decided to acknowledge the self-appointed leader of a particular foreign
country in spite of it already having an elected leader, which sounds like the
type of meddling that Trump said he was against. But, on the plus side at least
this is better than the usual invasion + nation-building scenario we have seen
in the past and that Trump promised to stop.
The country in
question is Venezuela. Mr. Trump officially recognized opposition leader Juan
Guaido as the nation’s new interim president instead of the elected Nicolas
Maduro. The motivations behind such a move can be both overt and conscious but
often it is what is in the subconscious that we ourselves do not even notice
that is actually the key motivating factor in our decisions. There is a very
emotional/ideological side to Venezuela that may be influencing “The Donald’s”
decision.
After
Israel/Palestine, Venezuela is one of the most emotionally divisive nations in
the world for Westerners. People really strongly project their own values,
beliefs and personal identity to certain political situations in certain
nations.
When it comes
to Israel, Western Liberals sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians who
have been “colonized” by “white” people and are being systematically oppressed.
For them this view of the situation confirms the victim culture that they hold
so dear.
On the opposite
side, Republicans identify with the Israelis as an oasis of Westerness in a
desert of heathens. They see the Israelis like some sort of cowboys taming the
Wild Mid-East.
This ability to
identify with or project one’s identity onto the Israeli/Palestinian question
is what makes people get into fiery internet arguments over an issue that they
know nothing about having never been to Israel, speaking a local language and
being only informed by the “objective” mainstream media.
Israel is a
nation/narrative that speaks to many but for vastly different reasons.
Venezuela is
not as “big” as Israel in terms of provoking online emotions from naive
Westerners but it could be a close second. The quasi-Communist visuals, and
“fight the man” attitude of the Chavez|Maduro era are repulsive to dog-eat-dog
Republican types whereas the Starbucks swilling Liberal crowd in their Che
Guevara T-shirts has tons of sympathy for the “poor victims of colonization”
that are just trying to fight back against “oppression”.
For example,
influential and respected conservative media giant Alex Jones calls
Venezuela “Communist and Socialist”
and more or less blames the country’s current struggles on their lack of
Westernness. Venezuela does not act like “us” so they are clearly bad and poor
because of it.
And, of course,
on the other side “The Young Turks” pretty much blame American “Imperialism” for all the
problems in Venezuela claiming that the failures of Venezuelan Socialism do not
count because of American interference.
We can see the
left/right, Liberal/Conservative dichotomy in action when Caracas is in
question. But there is one thing the Mainstream Media and Youtubers seem to not
understand.
Systemically,
Venezuela is not very different from the majority of the countries in the world
including the West.
Despite all
this talk of Communism and wearing red berets the only thing that is uniquely
Soviet about the nation’s constitution is
a right to work and housing which were featured in the Stalin constitution of
1936. However, in the very same “Communist” Venezuelan document, when speaking
about workers rights we see…
“Article 89.4: Any measure or act on the part of an employer in
violation of this Constitution is null and void, and of no effect.”
Yes the word
“employer” meaning employer in the Capitalist sense. In fact nowhere do we see
anything about “seizing the means of production” or giving rights to “the
working class” as we did with the Stalin constitution. Additionally if you even
bother to open Google maps you will see there are Western capitalist businesses
all over the nation including good ole McDonald’s. You can
package a product anyway you want but it doesn’t change the core product and
most of this “Socialism” that divides Western thought on Venezuela is merely
window dressing. Attention Western pundits, journalists and bloggers!
Venezuela is
NOT COMMUNIST.
That nation has
a Liberal constitution founded on individual rights in the Western tradition.
What it does have is some “workers’ liberation” propaganda and a few government
projects smeared on top of this solid Liberal cake. The current Venezuelan
constitution was written during the Chavez era itself and yet is still
fundamentally Western. In fact all over the EU we see Liberal constitutions
with Socialist window dressing. Venezuela is hardly unique in this position.
The key reason
for this dissonance has to do with the fact that what is appealing to the
Venezuelan people is not very appealing to Washington. Latin America has a lot
of gripes with the US for brutality and regime changes during the Cold War.
“Fighting the big evil oppressor” and having a country “for the people” are
things that commoners can rally around. This marketing strategy worked
fantastic for Chavez giving him the popularity of a demigod. However, this sort
of red banner quasi-Marxist marketing does not suit President Trump. It is
exactly the type of advertising to make the current US leader despise you.
Venezuela’s
internal advertising could be forgiven if it were not such an “uppity” nation
that actually tries to pursue an independent policy. This stands in direct
contradiction to what some see as Trump’s “Fortress America” policy
of trying to pull bring American influence and interests back to the Western
Hemisphere while at the same time completely and unquestioningly dominating it.
So motivation
behind the Trump recognition of Guaido really boils down to three points.
1. Trump finds
the Chavez-Maduro “narrative/marketing” repulsive.
2. Venezuela is
too uppity and too independent in its politics.
3. Leaders like
Maduro are a direct barrier to building “Fortress America”.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/01/25/what-trump-motivation-behind-recognition-guaido-venezuelan-president.html
