A pro-Chávez commenter writes:
Evil President Hugo Chavez is one of those scary Socialists Senator McCain warns you about – those who care more for the wretched than for the rich.
This Washington Post report of a Miami criminal investigation tells us much about Chávez’s supposed concern for the poor:
Transcripts of the taped conversations reveal intricate details of the collaboration between Venezuelan businessmen and government officials during Venezuela’s recent oil boom as they pilfered public funds through no-bid contracts, kickbacks and secret commissions.
For all the ire he directs at Bush-Cheney, Chávez has his own version of a Halliburton racket down in Venezuela. If we borrow the terminology of the current U.S. election, “change” vs. “more of the same,” we see that Chávez is doing his utmost to keep the latter — corruption, cronyism, militarism, autocracy — alive in Latin America. People on the left who cheer his efforts (and Sean Penn is merely the most famous) ought to be ashamed.
I’m saying this because, as my commenter indicated, there’s a lot of confusion these days about who’s left, who’s socialist, etc. According to Minnesota Republican congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, Barack Obama is Bill Ayers is Nancy Pelosi; all liberals are far-leftists with terrorist sympathies. According to McCain, Obama is a dangerous socialist. And according to my commenter, Chávez is a noble socialist. These views all share something in common: they are delusional and/or dishonest, and flat wrong. Bachmann and McCain, with any luck, are headed for the dustbin. That’s where the pro-Chávez left belongs as well. An Obama presidency will speed that much-needed transition.
Oliver Kamm makes the distinction that needs making:
In my view, the Latin American Left is an essential force for social progress. The continent is riven by severe inequalities. Moderate left-wing governments in Brazil, Uruguay and elsewhere have demonstrated that welfare is best advanced by constitutional government, and adherence to the tools of orthodox economic management. The regime in Venezuela is not part of that movement at all. It is instead located in the populist and authoritarian tradition, exemplified by Peronism in Argentina, that has inflicted terrible damage in a continent rich in natural resources. And one aspect of the closed and autocratic nature of that second tradition is rampant corruption.
Comments are closed.