Remember when Sanders used to point to Venezuela as a model we should follow?
Sorry, that is not a Sander’s quote. He never wrote or said those words nor does he point to Venezuela as a model to follow.
Sanders distanced himself from it because a throw-away line about Venezuela was being directly attributed to him. He simply clarified they were not his words or his position, yet dishonest conservatives continue to insinuate, nearly ten years later, that they were.
Among the news outlets, and others, that made the same mistake as Joe Bagadonuts were The National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Baltimore Sun, the L.A. Times, Forbes Magazine, The Federalist, The Ben Shapiro Show, and The Daily Wire.
https://quillette.com/2018/03/10/sanders-venezuela-meme/
All of the above "referred to, quoted, or paraphrased the same words as evidence of Sanders’s unambiguous devotion to Bolivarian economics. This sample doesn’t begin to cover the innumerable blogs, tweets, and social media posts which all repeat a variation on the same theme, but it is enough to illustrate the point."
Further: "Sanders’s critics would doubtless reply that cross-posting the article without clarification or caveat amounts to an endorsement. But an endorsement of what? The article is not about Venezuela or Bolivarianism (or Equador or Argentina, for that matter) but American inequalities, poverty, and lack of opportunities. The “Gaps that Threaten America” are domestic inequality, ‘the wealth gap,’ ‘the jobs gap,’ and racial disparities in property ownership. The only mention of Venezuela in the 600 word editorial comes in the endlessly circulated final two lines. It ought to be obvious to fair-minded people that, in the context of the article, this final rhetorical flourish was intended to shame America for failing to live up to its promise".
