First World Banana Republic

     I'm an American political blogger, therefore I usually restrict my political commentary to American politics. But since last night, I've been following the Venezuelan election with growing interest. Venezuela is fast becoming a trope and stereotype of corrupt South American strongman politics. Six years ago, Maduro should've been ousted when he lost that election but stole it from the opposition. And last night, he tried to do it again.

      The election officials are all in his pocket and he and his goons get to decide who can run or can't run for the presidency. They refuse to allow opposition leaders into the polling locations (In violation of the law) while themselves having near unrestricted access to them. And any government that gets to choose who the opposition can be (Putin does it in Russia) isn't a democracy.

      The situation on the ground is so bad that I've seen videos of Venezuelan cops stripping off their uniforms because they refuse to repress their own people. Governments, including ours, refuse to recognize the election "results".

      And the reason I'm following this election so closely is because of this: This is what election night in this country will look like on November 5th if we're not careful. Because Trump is so close to turning this once-great democracy into a banana republic, it's not even funny.

     Venezuelans aren't stupid, unlike many Americans. They know when an election's been stolen from them and they have a tendency to act badly when one is. Trump is taking notes about what's going on there. We need to start taking notes by watching its people.