People sure like Hugo Chavez. Hell, I think he's a rather funny guy. He's like the Jack Napier of world leaders. And the same people who have thought for six years now that George Bush was always a heartbeat away from burning the Constitution and enslaving the nation seem pretty enamored by this guy.
They aren't troubled by the path that Chavez has been on, one that really became prominent from his 1992 coup attempt against a popularly elected, yet troubled president; to his dissolving of the Senate; to his nationalization of the country's oil industry, which he uses to fund his popularity, both domestically and internationally (including parts of the United States); to his attempt to buy his way onto the UNSC. Throw in for good measure: his hostile take over of a major paper producer; his 18 months of 'rule by decree'; his intention to nationalize telecommunications; his desire to change the Venezuelan Constitution so as to avoid stepping down in 2012 when his term limit kicks in; inflation and interest rates that would make Jimmy Carter blush; his virtual takeover and partisan control of Venezuela's airwaves; his infringement on political speak by threatening those who print 'slanderous' comments against him with three-year prison sentences.
Despite his Bolavarianist appearance and the desire by US media to label him as a 'socialist', Chavez is basically a communist-in-waiting. And further proof (despite claims to the contrary) that communism is married to totalitarianism.
Karl Marx held the view that socialism is the natural stepping stone between capitalism and communism. The appeal of Chavez's brand of economic rule can be understood when looking at a nation struggling economically, strife with poverty. Chavez uses poverty and government hand-outs as a political weapon to ensure his popularity while he tweaks the system to ensure his permanent place as Venezuela's ruler.
So what is the appeal of Chavez and his economics to Americans? Americans by and large are not dirt poor people, particularly the vocal Left Chavistas who miraculously believe that what Chavez is doing in Venezuela is wonderful and revolutionary. And the party of Democrats in this country play carrot and stick with those people, buying support in order to consolidate political power. It's almost as if they have an agenda to see the Karl Marx prophecy fulfilled right here in the United States. They oppose privatization of anything, whether it be our income, our Social Security or student vouchers for private schools. They are hell-bent on Hugo-ing up our heath-care and post-secondary education. They want price-controls and other means of over-regulation on medicine and oil. Yes, they want people dependent upon government for their highest necessities.
It doesn't just end with economics. There are movements in the country to undermine family and faith. Religion may be the opiate for the masses but it is also the antibiotic for the Neo-Comm agenda. This agenda includes suppressing religious expression, pushing abortion, pushing same-sex marriage and opposing traditional marriage, 'normalizing' alternative families, using the mainstream media and academia as their propaganda machines, utilizing activist courts and judges to get their agenda implemented, opposing patriotic displays, weakening parental authority, using environmental issues to bully business as well as government domestic and foreign policy, promoting the sexualization of children, opposing national security measures, supporting open-borders and lax immigration policies, opposing a common language, building a culture and political climate more reflective of our European pseudo-socialist allies, opposing the military and rhetorically supporting our enemies and willfully parroting their propaganda.
Individually, these all represent different levels of problems for our society, but collectively they seem to share a goal of weakening our country, our national unity, our position in the world and our common American heritage. So again, why do we let them?
What's in it for us? Do people really believe that Big Government can achieve all of their dreams for them without a price to pay? We could take a page from the French, who last year saw thousands of their finest protest and borderline riot over the French government's radical notion that businesses would do better if they could actually fire incompetent people. The protesting bums and would-be bums bullied the French government into abandoning it's attempt to help improve their economy.
It really comes down to a choice: do you believe that we should be a nation of independence or a country of people in dependence of government? Because you can't have it both ways. There is always a slope and right now, the slope is heading into a new and scary era for this country with no signs of slowing down or turning back. We have governments dictating to restaurants what kinds of fat they can use in their foods for crying out loud!
Where does it end? Every time something is proposed, people like myself point out the next logical steps and we are ridiculed for it. Then when those predictions become reality, they insist that the next steps are not realistic. And so on. And so forth.
To Chavistas in America who think highly of the would-be dictator: do you dream of the Chavez vision for America? Is there a limit to what government should fund and provide, should tax, should regulate, should nationalize? Do people left of the aisle ever ponder the idea that Big Government is a Pandora's Box that will eventually consume them too?