SciFiFisher wrote:I have a hard time understanding how even a corrupt regime can go from producing over 3 million barrels of oil to barely 750,000.
![thinking :think:](./images/smilies/think.gif)
Because it wasn't corruption alone. There was a lot of ideological rigidity. By 2014 they had painted themselves into a corner. They could not admit their precious "Socialism for the 21st Century" had failed miserably. So, they doubled down, over and over again. Remember: they were so adamant denying we were suffering from hyperinflation that they refused to put in circulation higher denomination bills and there has been a cash shortage since 2017. Furthermore, they refused to do a currency re-conversion (as in removing zeroes and issuing new currency) until it was way too late (of course, the economic policies needed to stop hyper-inflation were never even considered because they were not "socialist"). They couldn't admit there was a a humanitarian crisis that made over three million people leave the country until it became international news.
Of course, we're way past the ideological phase right now. They're doing anything they can to cling to power. Because, they know that even if they aren't a a bunch of Drug Traffickers, there's no way they are not going to be let off with a slap in the wrist if (hopefully WHEN) they fall.
Of course, this doesn't happen only to "Socialists". Your Republicans seem to have gone down pretty far down that path. However, your Dems haven't still (despite it all) been bitten by "Ideological Purity". I consider that, THAT, which is seen as weakness these days, is their greatest strength in resisting nutjobs like the DSA.