In a speech in which he defended his revolutionary approach and a string of recent state takeovers or "interventions" of food industry and other companies, Chávez exclaimed: "Come on, Obama, align yourself with us on the way to socialism! Come on, it’s the only way!"It would be unseemly for the United States, or any other free country, to detract from the glories of Venezuela by emulating her. However, some contend that the U.S. has already begun the process. The new Pravda says that the United States is already well along the path. El Presidente Chávez appears to be highly pleased
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday [2 June 2009] that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.
"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.
A joke, to be sure; but jokes generally fall flat unless they embody some element of truth.
Of course, El Presidente can be a tad mercurial. He has also referred to President Obama as an ignoramus. Nevertheless, El Presidente says that he may give President Obama a copy of Lenin's book What is to be Done? when next they meet.
The right of all citizens to vote is the bedrock of a democratic society, and position advocacy is a fundamental part of that bedrock. Citizens should not only be free to vote, they should be free — and, indeed, encouraged, to express their opinions. El Presidente Chávez has done much to enable the citizens of Venezuela to vote, and to express their opinions on how their fellow citizens should vote — provided that they support El Presidente. The recent decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to drop all charges against members of the New Black Panther Party in connection with their emphatic expressions of views at polling places in Philadelphia, while brandishing a weapon is, perhaps, part of a grand and glorious plan to encourage freedom of expression in the United States as it has been encouraged in Venezuela; or, perhaps (and I hope) it is not. In any event, great trees from little acorns grow, particularly little acorns watered and fertilized with substantial Federal grants.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Interesting article and brings up too many points to stuff into a comment box. However, I will say this:
1. Such huge reversals such as what happened in Venezuela (and elsewhere) started with small chips that snowballed into a larger movement.
2. The dissenters should speak up more loudly. Because...
3. The majority of people are misinformed, uninformed and/or apathetic.
I've spent six weeks ignoring my world and now that I've emerged, all I can say is scary.
These are scary times.
2 - Doug Hunter
I'm not sure what was behind dropping the charges against the black panthers offshoot that is classified as a hate group by the SPLC and ADL. They have them on tape holding a weapon, they have them on tape telling white people 'you are about to be ruled by a black man', and they have witness statements from even civil rights lawyers that say they heard them call white people crackers in the midst of the intimidation.
If this were KKK in uniform with weapons calling people niggers there'd be hell to pay. Unfortunately, leftist propaganda has built republicans and whites up to be so evil that any action against them is justified. That's how you lose freedoms.
3 - Dan(Miller)
Joanne,
When Chávez was first elected, I kinda maybe thought he might possibly do some good for the country, particularly by diminishing the then endemic corruption. He did not do that, and corruption is, if possible, much worse now than it was in 1999. So is just about everything else in Venezuela.
Recently, Panama had her presidential elections, with two major candidates. One (from the party of the current President, who seemed a pretty good guy to me) was from the "left wing" of her party; she was pretty high on both Chávez and Castro, and had also been good buddies with Manuel Noriega when he was in power. She had me worried. Fortunately, she lost overwhelmingly to the other major candidate, who collected more than sixty percent of the vote; just over seventy percent of those eligible to do so voted. The winning candidate is a very successful businessman, and many of those who supported his candidacy felt that his election would be good for the economy. I hope, and think, that he will do quite well. The best news for me is that, at least in Panama, for now, we don't have to worry too much about many of the things going on in countries under the influence of el Presidente Chávez.
Dan(Miller)
4 - Dan(Miller)
Here is an interesting take, from a Venezuelan perspective, on the elections in Iran.
Dan(Miller)
5 - Dan(Miller)
I wonder whether Venezuela has inspectors general and, if so, how she deals with them. This might provide some helpful guidance.
Dan(Miller)