The Potemkin Playbook: How the Left Spins Misery into Merriment

Progressives have always had a flair for the sleight of hand, a kind of twisted magician act where the trick isn’t about pulling a rabbit out of a hat but rather masking the misery they’ve created. They’ve been at this for ages. Just look at Stalin’s “Potemkin Villages” in the early 20th century — those stage-managed utopias designed to distract the world from the grim realities of famine, forced labor, and mass executions orchestrated by the Soviet Union.

For those fresh out of public school and unversed in history, these “villages” were elaborate fakes, described by The Guardian as places “where actors pretended to be living a life of luxury amid bulging granaries and well-paved streets.” Western “intellectuals,” eager for a glimpse of socialist success, were led through these façades, reporting back glowing stories of Soviet triumph, all while millions of actual citizens starved in the shadows.

Fast forward to today, and the curtain rises on a new act in communist Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro’s latest trick is pulling Christmas out of thin air three months early. That’s right: Christmas in October! When your country’s in ruins, what better way to deflect from empty grocery shelves, sham elections, and political crackdowns than to sprinkle some premature holiday cheer?

“September smells like Christmas!” Maduro declared with gusto, saying, “This year, to honor you all, I’m decreeing the start of Christmas on October 1. Christmas arrives for everyone, in peace, joy, and security!”

And by “peace, joy, and security,” what Maduro really means is repression, despair, and chaos — the standard-issue gifts of every leftist regime. Maduro even jokes about his sick little “game” of terrorizing dissenters, known as “Operation Knock-Knock,” where, according to CNN, government goons come knocking on the doors of government critics.

Or, as Maduro taunts in public, “Knock knock, who is it? Peaceful people. Don’t be a crybaby, you’re going to Tocorón [prison].”

By all accounts, Maduro was shellacked in the last election in a landslide yet proclaimed himself the victor anyway. Since then, he’s ordered broad-scale roundups of protesters and backed an arrest warrant for his chief political rival, Edmundo Gonzalez (sound familiar?). The nonprofit Human Rights Watch has identified at least 11 killings following the fraudulent July 28 election.

But don’t worry — Christmas is coming early!

How’s that supposed to restock the barren grocery stores for starving Venezuelans who are so desperate they’re currently eating stray dogs? Great question, and one that locals want answers to. A frustrated mother sums it up this way: “We are all worried about how to put food on the table, pay for the bus, send our kids to school, and buy medicine.”

Another resident bristles, “Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, family reunions, parties, presents. But without money and with this political crisis, who really believes in an early Christmas?” 

No one’s buying the “early Christmas” hype, but since the holiday season usually “comes with extra bonuses for public employees and more lavish gifts in government handouts,” Maduro’s banking on those freebies to calm the unrest and sell his own “Potemkin Village” to the world.

Clearly, none of this will actually solve the core issue that got Venezuela into such disarray, which is leftist rule. More of the same will deliver… more of the same — whether Christmas lands in October or on its usual date of December 25. Progressive governance crushes the individual spirit and is the sworn enemy of freedom.

Meanwhile, the American left plays a subtler but no less deceptive game, pushing for government takeovers of energy, healthcare, and education sectors under the guise of “a new way forward.” They sugarcoat their power grabs with the sweetest buzzwords, like “joy,” “progress,” and “vibes.”

Here’s a vibe check for you: People are feeling the pinch due to the White House’s current adventurism in the economy. As the Associated Press reports, “Even though inflation is slowing, many Americans remain unhappy with today’s sharply higher prices for such necessities as gas, food and housing compared with their pre-pandemic levels. Many have cut spending on nonessentials to save money for things like groceries.”

Dollar General’s stock has tanked due to poor revenue forecasts. The CEO explains the situation plainly: “Inflation has continued to negatively impact these households, with more than 60 percent claiming they have had to sacrifice on purchasing basic necessities due to the higher cost of those items.”

Surely, today’s political class will wake up and pump the brakes on policies that are obviously wrecking the finances of American families?

Not a chance. Instead, progressives are stepping on the gas, driving us straight into a bureaucratic nightmare, complete with promises of government price-fixing on groceries, taxpayer-funded housing subsidies, and even more job-crushing taxation on successful entrepreneurs.

Of course, this “new way forward” is nothing but the same old game, recycling “solutions” that only exist because of the failures of their last so-called “fixes.”

In short, the American left has its own “Operation Knock-Knock” — the one President Reagan called the nine scariest words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

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