Stressed out about the election? Do like Venezuela's president and dance your troubles away

By Fusion Staff | November 8, 2016 | 4:29pm

Latest

Have the presidential elections got you stressed out? Are you nervous that the U.S. is heading for a major crisis of governability under the next president?

Well take some advice from the experts in crisis. When the going gets tough, the tough get dancing.

Most Popular

Venezuela is the undisputed leader in manufacturing crisis of governability. And nobody deals with the stress of it better than President Nicolas Maduro, whose three-year government has been an endless series of unmitigated disasters.

So what’s his secret? Comfy shoes, twinkle toes, and revolutionary rhythm.

When Maduro’s not dancing, he finds time to preside over one the hemisphere’s most unpopular and dysfunctional governments and mismanage a ruinous economy marked by the world’s highest inflation rate. His government is also known for rampant crime, mass emigration, and kids dying from preventible diseases.

But man can that guy dance. And he’s found time to dedicate to that passion on his new daily salsa show, where Maduro sings and dances while the country falls apart outside the studio.

Venezuelans have turned that disconnect between their dancing president and their suffering country into a flurry of memes.

Here’s Maduro dancing his way through scenes of poverty, violence, economic hardship.

And Maduro dancing his way past a cocaine seizure, as his wife’s nephews are tried in the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges.

Here he is fancy-stepping his way past the breadlines.

And here he is showing off his presidential two-step as Venezuela’s currency continues its free fall towards worthlessness, depreciating another 30% against the U.S. dollar over the past month.

So don’t worry, Americans. It’s still early on Election Day. There’s plenty of time to get out there and cast your vote to help steer the U.S. out of the lane of oncoming crisis.

But if that doesn’t work. Just do like Maduro and dance to the music inside your own head.

Manuel Rueda is a correspondent for Fusion, covering Mexico and South America. He travels from donkey festivals, to salsa clubs to steamy places with cartel activity.