Good Buddy Hugo Chavez

Fidel's good buddy Hugo Chavez is at it again, screaming about how he will bury FTAA, and how he is planning to begin a "news" and propaganda network named Telesur.

Oh Lord, here we go. Hugo Chavez is Socialist Lite. He has all of the trappings of a freely elected leader, a masqureade to cover his abuses of Human Rights among dissenters in Venezuela. He gets Jimmy Carter to come down and sanction his election, and he's a groovy little darling of the left.

By means of loud denunciations of the United States, he appeals to a disenfranchised population in Latin America. Were he offering a true method of reform, this would certainly be something that could appeal to those who embrace liberty.

Regrettably, he just parrots the anti-Bush left in the United States, pawning off half-truths and outright lies indicting this country of radical, systematic racism; neglect of the poor; the elimination of the middle classes, yada, yada, yada.

Tell ya what, Huguito, when the middle class in your country is as big as the one in this country, or bigger, then you can talk about how unfair we are. Until that day, please do everyone in the hemisphere a favor and shut your pie-hole.

There are problems in Latin America, but the question is as to which countries have the greatest numbers of people trying to get out by any means possible. Obviously, Mexico and El Salvador have issues with entrenched anti-libertarian authority. Guatemala has been looted like a New Orleans Wal Mart, as has Haiti. Colombia has been fighting a bloody and vicious civil war for the last fifty years. Brazil has a middle level of corruption that rivals the worst ruined mechanisms in Mexico. Reform of problems like these is not coming overnight, because the problems did not spring up overnight.

Reform of these issues is a desirable thing. Mexico has made great strides in improving the situation. Privatization has not been the best situation in Argentina, but the Chileans have done well, and could be emulated. Costa Rica has functioned as a tolerant, peaceful republic for the last 57 years. Ecuador has had issues, as has Peru, but both countries are progressing as compared to Venezuela under demagogue Chavez.

Chavez mocks the peaceful transition of power, as exists now in the nations he chides. He has acted exactly as he has accused Bush of acting...stealing elections, judicial fiat, disregard of world opinion, hiding out with despots.Where are the leftists doing that finger-wagging shame shame thing when it's their lap dog?

Credit is given where credit is due. Bush has honestly taken steps with Mexico's President Fox to improve the standard of living in Mexico. He has managed this without diminishing the United States' standard of living. What has hurt the US economy has had nothing to do with Mexico, and everything to do with a necessary demonstration of force that was woefully underestimated by the Bush administration.

Vicente Fox has nothing to be ashamed of with regard to the improvements in Mexico. Bush is not a fool, either; he understands that his country has a vital strategic interest in having a productive, free, democratic, and eventually prosperous Mexico sitting on Texas' back door.

The center right has grasped several points.

Rhetoric does not effect change, but it does bring about productive dialogue. Blame-and-shame games accomplish nothing. Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem. Open trade improves both sides. Good neighbors are a mutual asset. Solutions are best found through ingenuity and individual initiative as opposed to committees and programs.

Bush has been accoutable for his failures, with a free press and open criticism. Chavez passes the buck to Bush with paranoia and demagogic pedantry.

It may be just to state that the left would not fare as well if it were subjected to the same level of scrutiny and accountability. The tactic of blaming Bush and the Republicans has passed from the merely inane to the totally asinine.

The only tools left for the totalitarian, authoritarian left (and right!) are appeasement, isolation, propaganda, and suppression of dissent. These are the tools Fidel and his Good Buddy Hugo Chavez use on a daily basis.

If the left wishes to replace what exists now, then it will be incumbent upon them to prosper using the same rule book. After all, it is only fair, and the left claims that they are much more fair than the middle or the right.

Free human beings are the best judge of what is fair, not dictators who stack the deck.