Don't Heil for Me, Hugo Chavez
Today is Wednesday, 18 February 2009.
There are some on the Left who are applauding the Venezuelan referendum which has just made Hugo Chavez eligible to run for President forever. They argue that he is bringing “socialism” to the country, and that the leadership of an indispensable caudillo is a regrettable, but necessary, interlude.
I believe it was De Gaulle who said, “The cemeteries of the world are littered with the remains of “indispensable" men.”
We’re also supposed to drop the Chavez back-story down the memory hole. Sure, he came to public notice as just another thug military officer attempting a right-wing coup to replace a corrupt oligarchic dictatorship with a corrupt junta dictatorship, but we must let bygones be bygones.
Granted, more income is flowing to many of Venezuela’s numerous poor, but in the context of a top-down political system that doesn’t trust the masses to direct their own destiny.
The politics of Chavez are the politics of Juan Peron. The megalomaniacal egotism of Chavez outshines even Evita Peron, and, unfortunately, Hugita hasn’t had the decency to die of cancer.
Hugoismo isn’t socialism, but merely a (thus far) softer Stalinism. No nation needs a Big Man to beat the people into the Promised Land.
There are some on the Left who are applauding the Venezuelan referendum which has just made Hugo Chavez eligible to run for President forever. They argue that he is bringing “socialism” to the country, and that the leadership of an indispensable caudillo is a regrettable, but necessary, interlude.
I believe it was De Gaulle who said, “The cemeteries of the world are littered with the remains of “indispensable" men.”
We’re also supposed to drop the Chavez back-story down the memory hole. Sure, he came to public notice as just another thug military officer attempting a right-wing coup to replace a corrupt oligarchic dictatorship with a corrupt junta dictatorship, but we must let bygones be bygones.
Granted, more income is flowing to many of Venezuela’s numerous poor, but in the context of a top-down political system that doesn’t trust the masses to direct their own destiny.
The politics of Chavez are the politics of Juan Peron. The megalomaniacal egotism of Chavez outshines even Evita Peron, and, unfortunately, Hugita hasn’t had the decency to die of cancer.
Hugoismo isn’t socialism, but merely a (thus far) softer Stalinism. No nation needs a Big Man to beat the people into the Promised Land.
posted by HH at 9:38 AM
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