Is there a racist virus, or are there serious defects in liberalism?

Richard Fernandez writes in PJ Media,

The year 2016 was a traumatic experience, shattering the left-wing sense of safety and dominance. Hillary's defeat -- and to a lesser extent Brexit and the rise of populism in Europe -- demonstrated the astonishing fragility of the mainstream liberal project and provided shocking proof that "the plague never dies." The boogeymen the progressives seek to exterminate can apparently resist any fumigation, indoctrination or persuasion, leaving liberal activists like those characters in horror movies who shoot at Dracula without effect. This in turn led to renewed interest in outright socialism among Democrats. If Hillary and her billions proved useless against the MAGA werewolf, perhaps Bernie Sanders and AOC have the silver bullet.

...Only experience can falsify -- and only temporarily -- cultic belief. In this respect, Venezuela is also instructive. It changed. For decades Venezuela's poor held loyal to the belief that the socialists were on "their side." Now they are fighting Maduro. How did this turnabout happen?

...The most telling indicator of socialism's fall in Venezuela is that forces have flipped. Now it is the poor who challenge Maduro and the Russian- and Cuban-supported military that props up the regime. One way to understand this is that the burn through moment in Venezuela occurred.

This might also throw light on why Hillary failed precisely at the very moment the dream seemed close enough to touch. At that instant it was clear enough to see.

Is the return of racists and Nazis the explanation for the current headlines? Or are people genuinely rising up against bloated incompetence? Time will tell. Reality always tells us which model is correct.

On that will turn the Democratic Party's future. Will it be someone like Bernie Sanders or someone like Howard Schultz?

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