George, Hugo, and Vladimir
Time to play find the authoritarian.
Two votes. Two decidedly different outcomes.
Voters took to the polls overseas this weekend and the results are an illuminating look at how the US has handled its foreign policy. For in a country we ostensibly label an ally, democracy has taken even more of a backslide while in one constantly denounced as authoritarian, the voice of the people rang loud and rang true.
First up: Russia where President Vladimir Putin’s party won a landslide sweep in the parliamentary elections. Speculation is already off and running that Putin will use this win to continue to remain in power past the end of his term early next year. What form that will take remains to be seen but it is a safe bet that like his soul eyed counterpart in the US, Putin will find someway to remain influential beyond his tenure.
But such an authoritarian move is getting very little attention as compared to that of the defeat of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s referendum seeking more power. Unlike Putin, Chavez put the issue of whether he could stay past his current term to a vote and the people responded. Even more surprising is that Chavez, though chastised, vows to abide by the vote and even goes to far as claim it as proof that there is no dictatorship in his country.
So on the one hand we have a man who has been referred to as a Latin American version of Hitler praising a vote against him and on the other we have a man who seems bent subverting democracy to stay in power at all costs.
No wonder Bush sees eye to eye far more with the latter than he does with the former.
See also Cernig.
(X-posted at The Xsociate Files)
Perhaps what this means is that the U.S. should be more vocal in its opposition to Leftists and their inevitable grasp for power. I’m glad to see that you are with me in your opposition to Leftists around the world trying to seize dictatorial power.
I’m sorry, but I’m having some trouble relating the above comment to what was written in the post. Unless you think Putin, of all people, is a “leftist,” you seem to have misinterpreted Xsociate. Chavez, despite being roundly criticized as a dictator, seems to be respecting a democratic process here while Putin is undermining the process in his supposedly democratic state. And if you are concerned about the US not taking being vocal enough in opposing Chavez (who I assume you are referring to as leftist, though I don’t think that is at all accurate) then I suggest you pay more attention to the anti Chavez rhetoric spewing from every single media outlet in America twenty four hours a day.
Putin said that the fall of the USSR was the word disaster in history. Further, he was a member of the COmmunist party. I see little evidence he’s not a leftist — though he’s perhaps a bit more of a pragmatist then even a Leftist.
Chavez is a Marxist, plain and simple. He’s identified himself as such. He wanted to be dictator, but fortunately 51% of the people of Venezuela weren’t complete fools.
Pay attention too to those who love Chavez.