The political situation in Venezuela has deteriorated and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. is now taking back his endorsement of an editorial he posted on his website in 2011 that praised the socialist country of Venezuela as a place where the “American dream is more apt to be realized”.
The editorial piece came from the Valley News editorial board, and it discussed the U.S. jobs and wealth gap, and it was posted under the “must read” section on the official Bernie Sanders’ Senate website.
“Less remarked, however, is the fact that America’s wealth gap is also a race gap,” the editorial board wrote. “As the Pew Research Center reported last week, the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. Think about that. In 2009, the typical black household had $5,677 in wealth — defined as assets minus debts; the typical Hispanic household had $6,325; the typical white household, by contrast, had $113,149.
“These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who’s the banana republic now?” the editorial piece states.
Sarah Ford, the deputy communications director for Sanders’ 2020 campaign, told the Washington Examiner:
“Sen. Sanders agrees with many of the important points raised in that article with regard to wealth and income inequality,” she said. “With regard to the article’s reference to Venezuela, Sen. Sanders has been critical of the Maduro government’s repression of dissent and called for international aid to end the ongoing humanitarian crisis, so would not endorse that specific claim.”
