This video wrestles with the U.S. action in Venezuela and the reflex to frame it as a uniquely Trump-era aberration, which is an instinct that quietly redeems the past rather than reckoning with it. Drawing on oil politics, executive power, and the collapse of comforting myths, I argue that Trump is less a rupture than a reveal: a continuation of long-standing American practices now spoken without euphemism. The real tension isn’t just over legality or norms, but over whether we’re willing to confront the history that made this moment possible.
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