By Tom Woods
January 6, 2026
Everyone is talking about Venezuela these days, but instead of covering that in detail in my email newsletter, I'll be discussing it this week on the Tom Woods Show, as well as in the January issue of my print newsletter that will be mailed later this month.
But very briefly:
The right wing is all over the place on this.
Right-leaning libertarians are for the most part against. Plenty of America First people are against.
MAGA folks are more or less in favor, with some of them distinguishing this operation from "nation building" on the other side of the globe, and others not even bothering to make that distinction.
Some America First people are talking about the Monroe Doctrine, or saying it's "America First" for the United States to flex its power as the hemispheric hegemon.
Some are reminding everyone that Maduro was a bad guy (that's really the level of the conversation in many cases).
But others are noticing: the poll numbers are not good on this. You might think with the jubilation of Venezuelan immigrants they might be, but they're not.
Americans seem foreign policy'd out.
They'd like their own jubilation.
When the America First president says he intends to "fix up the country" (his words), but the country in question is Venezuela, that's a problem no matter how you slice it.
This is the same president who, when asked about housing prices, warned that if housing prices come down this will hurt Boomers who have been using their houses like ATMs.
So yes, in theory we'd sort of like to bring housing prices down, but it's tricky.
Translation: you're on your own, kiddos.
On health care, another prong of the "affordability crisis," there are measures that could be taken immediately that would bring health care costs down. Rand Paul has a bunch. Lindsey Graham, who is bored to death with America, doesn't seem to have any.
But despite defending Trump at his impeachment, and voting with him most of the time, Rand isn't on the team, so you can probably forget about any work together on health care.
The year 2025 was an eye-opening one for people who hadn't been paying attention: the major DEI expose, the Somali scandal, the politicians who cannot keep their minds on their own constituents for five minutes, and the general sense that whatever the purpose of this institution is, their well-being is not part of it.
There is not going to be a political solution to many of the problems that beset us. In principle there could be. There won't.
The sooner we absorb that, the sooner we get set about getting our houses in order with our own efforts.
I have some goals - not "New Year's resolutions" - that will make what I would describe as a fairly comfortable life considerably and noticeably better by December 31.
At that time I will look around and find that most people are unchanged from January 1.
I hate to break it to you, but one of Woods's Laws is: nobody ever does anything.
As Murray Rothbard would say, this isn't a praxeological law we know with apodictic certainty; some people do in fact do things. But as Professor John Rao once put it, "Most people throughout history are playing video games."
Surely you don't want to be one of those people, dear reader.
(And before you write to defend video games, understand that his point is not about video games.)
At my age I am distinctly aware of how (relatively) few Januaries I have left, so of course I'm not letting them just happen to me. I am bending my remaining years to my will.
Let's make 2026 your best year yet - but when the timer hits zero tomorrow the doors close for good:
