A cancer called the Democratic Socialists of America is growing inside the Democratic Party. It’s winning elections, seizing power and pushing a radical agenda. And this cancer is all about making the United States more like the country in which I was born: Venezuela.The Democratic Socialists of America add the word “democratic” to make you believe it’s fair for the government to take away your rights. They often compare their policies to Scandinavian countries to make you believe that this time socialism will work. But the reality is this: The Democratic Socialists of America promote an agenda that reminds me far more of what destroyed Venezuela than anything you’ll find in Scandinavia.That agenda recently moved one step closer to the political mainstream. Democratic Socialist-backed candidates scored several high-profile victories, including Abdul El-Sayed’s Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. El-Sayed campaigned to “take on corporate greed and rebuild an economy that works for working people.” He insisted: “It shouldn’t be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries.”
To many Michigan Democrats, those words may sound like economic populism. To me, having lived through Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, they echo the same rhetoric that preceded government control, attacks on private enterprise and the steady erosion of economic freedom.One of the DSA’s signature proposals is to expand public ownership of major sectors of the economy. But Scandinavian countries don’t do this. Chávez in Venezuela did. His government took control of the oil industry, electricity, telecommunications, steel, cement, banks, supermarkets and hundreds of private businesses — including my family’s.
El-Sayed similarly proposed public ownership of AI: “Placing AI under democratic control is a critical step to keeping our democracy intact and our economy healthy.” The result in Venezuela was greater government control over the economy and our lives, widespread corruption, weakened property rights, collapsing productivity and one of the worst economic crises in modern history.The DSA also proposes government-owned grocery stores. Venezuela tried that, too. They were a nationwide network of state-run supermarkets that promised affordable food for everyone. New York Mayor and avowed socialist, Zohran Mamdani, has announced similar stores will appear in the city in late 2027. The result in Venezuela was chronic shortages, long lines, empty shelves, expired products and still more corruption. Millions of Venezuelans struggled to find even basic necessities.Free public transportation proposals from the DSA are another example. The socialist government in Venezuela heavily subsidized public transportation, arguing mobility was a social right and prices should remain artificially low. But when fares no longer covered operating costs and the government couldn’t maintain the system, services collapsed. Today, in many parts of Venezuela, people spend hours waiting for transportation that may never arrive.The DSA likes to talk about “eating the rich.” Chávez too went after the wealthy. His government expropriated thousands of farms, factories, businesses and private companies, claiming they existed to serve the people. El-Sayed also proposes confiscatory tax policy toward wealthier Americans by raising their income taxes, taxing capital gains and inheritances as ordinary income and levying a wealth tax on billionaires. The result in Venezuela was a collapse in private investment, declining production, capital flight and an economy increasingly dominated by political insiders.Then there’s rent control. Massive public housing. Converting private property into communal ownership. I’ve heard those ideas before, too. Chávez launched something he called “Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela,” which promised millions of free homes while simultaneously expropriating private property and expanding government control over housing. Another Michigan Democrat, William Lawrence, who won the primary for the 7th congressional district, is co-founder of the Michigan “Rent Is Too Damn High” Coalition, which explicitly calls for repealing Michigan’s statewide rent-control ban and building publicly developed housing. The result in Venezuela was predictable: poor construction quality, massive corruption, housing shortages and little incentive for private developers to build new homes.It gets worse. Radical socialism has never been only about economics. It has always been about transforming the political system itself. On that point, the parallels become especially striking.
The DSA has advocated restructuring and expanding the U.S. Supreme Court. Chávez dramatically expanded Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal in 2004, allowing his allies to dominate the judiciary and weakening judicial independence. El-Sayed has said he is comfortable with “Supreme Court reform.”
The DSA has proposed two other policies. One is to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. Chávez rewrote Venezuela’s Constitution in 1999, then pushed another constitutional reform in 2007 to expand presidential power. The other DSA proposal is to abolish the U.S. Senate. Chávez eliminated Venezuela’s bicameral legislature in 1999, replacing it with a single National Assembly that concentrated more power in fewer hands.
The United States — the country I now proudly call home and the country that saved my life — is built on a different idea. Here, we are not guaranteed happiness. We have the right to pursue it.For those of us who come from the darkness, that is everything.
Franklin Camargo is a Venezuelan-born PragerU personality and co-author of “After Socialism, Freedom.”
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: The Democratic Socialists of America’s dream is my Venezuelan nightmare | Opinion
Reporting by Franklin Camargo / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Franklin Camargo | USA TODAY Network
