Venezuela's Warning to Californians: Never Take Elections for Granted

The Daily Signal

Government, Daily News, News, Politics

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While Congress argues over whether it was “overreaching by the Trump administration” to capture Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro, it’s important to remember that Venezuela was “ not a free and open society” for the past two decades, reminds Daily Signal California Commentator Elaine Culotti. Culotti urges Californians to see Venezuela as a reminder to take their civic duty of voting seriously in the state’s upcoming elections. “ If we don't vote differently, we can't change things. And the fact that we have the power to vote is such a miracle. It's such a freedom. It's such an honor to have the power to choose the people that you want to run your country, your state, your town, your school, your insurance, everything… We should be celebrating it every day, and we should be taking advantage of it.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:10.4	What say you?
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0:18.3	Take us on home, Ashley from Carraway.
0:20.2	If we did have Slack tomorrow,
0:22.2	I would explode. Well, let's not let that happen. Visit Slack.com slash podcast to get 50%
0:27.7	of Slack Business Plus. The guy who ran Venezuela ran Venezuela for 26 years. 26 years is not a free and open society. It's not a democratic society. 26 years. 26 years is not a free and open society. It's not a democratic society. 26 years is a
0:42.7	dictatorship. And here in California, which is my home, we have elections coming up. And if what
0:49.3	happened in Venezuela has taught me anything, it has taught me how lucky we are that we have an open voting system
0:56.3	in America where we can choose who runs our country and how they run it. And the only thing
1:02.1	we have to do is vote.
1:09.8	Hi, I'm Elaine Kalati for the Daily Signal, otherwise known as Lipstick Farmer. I felt compelled to do a
1:17.9	podcast today about waking up to the regime change going on in Venezuela. We've had a lot of
1:27.0	arguing in the house about it. And I want to compare
1:31.3	it to something and I want to make a point that's valid to me. There is celebration in the streets
1:37.4	and there are a lot of people who think it's overreaching by the Trump administration. So it's
	...

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