Socialism leads to corruption: Trish Regan

Nicolás Maduro is allegedly offered up a kind of olive branch Wednesday night suggesting to Russian media that he is willing to negotiate with the opposition – with Juan Guaidó - in Venezuela.

I spoke to Guaidó just before the show - he's says no way. He's not entering into fake talks.

I have reached out to Maduro's regime for a response…nothing yet.

Part of the reason these elections in Venezuela are so unfair is because ballots aren’t entirely secret. The current discredited regime governs through intimidation. And they keep the people down...And desperate for handout...Threatening them with a suspension of those handouts should they dare vote for the opposition.

In Venezuela, sources tell me you have a government I.D. and that card gets you all the rationing that you need to survive. From food to shelter and the government tracks what you get and how you vote.

So, if there’s a government apartment building with 500 apartments... If the government sees that 200 people there voted for the opposition?

Do you want to know what happens? The entire building loses its government housing. Everyone is sent packing.

Think about that — that is voter intimidation. The government stays in power through fear. They don’t allow or permit prosperity — yet simultaneously keep their people fully dependent.

That’s not the way to run a country and yet — for the so-called collective good of the community, the will of the individual in Venezuela, as it is in any socialist communist-style government, is suppressed.

As renowned early 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin once said, “The first people totalitarians destroy or silence are men of ideas and free minds.”

Venezuela is the extreme. But, socialism — I remind you — corrupts. We cannot let it take root here.