Hugo Chavez has made significant progress, in ten years moving Venezuela much of the way toward his vision of a perfectly-governed country. But one of his proteges has made even faster progress in only a few weeks. Could it be that Hugo has stimulated a bit of competition with one of his admirers?
In a previous post, “Political Change: The Hugo Chavez Model”, I identified the three-step program that Hugo Chavez is implementing in Venezuela. I noted that his Step 2 had run into a temporary roadblock, although his Step 3 was being rolled out at a rapid pace. As I predicted, Chavez came right back, better-prepared to make Step 2 happen; with his recent victory at the polls he is 85% of the way. Presidential term limits have been voted out, and Hugo’s Step 2 goal of Presidente For Life is within sight.
Chavez has proven he is smart, ruthless and tenacious; and he is totally consumed with two major goals. The first is to transform Venezuela into a classic Soviet-style Marxist / Leninist dictatorship. The second is to transform his entire continent into the Union of South American Socialist Republics, with Venezuela as its controlling center. His progress is accelerating.
But his protege has also proven to be very smart, devious, and capable of using the ruthless elected politicians as well as the shady characters in his administration. Barak Obama has utilized political muscle and sheer personality to leverage the United States to the threshold of European-style Socialism in less than a month. The government is presently engaged in nationalizing U. S. banks, just as Karl Marx prescribed in “Das Kapital”. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are back to 100% government enterprises, and General Motors and Ford are getting their government marching orders. Other efforts are under way to transfer management authority in private businesses to the federal government.
In addition, Obama has laid the foundation for his own Presidente For Life plan by the simple step of moving control of the U. S. Census into the White House. Now his political party is within grasp of indefinite control, although Obama’s personal indefinite control will require a little more effort.
Barak Obama’s true beliefs and goals are unknown (except possibly to a very small circle of trustworthy confidants). Hugo Chavez has always been more open about his plans, more so than even Adolph Hitler was in “Mein Kampf”. But Obama keeps his cards close to the vest. He talks a lot, but he says almost nothing. Therefore we are limited to observing recurring themes from his writings and speeches and to watching his political appointments and official actions.
One clue to Obama’s true beliefs may lie in his twenty years as a member of a church immersed in Black Liberation Theology, which is heavily-laced with Marxism. Then we notice the recurring themes in his communications tend to incite class envy and to convince American workers that they are downtrodden. In fact, most of his campaign speeches sound like extracts from Engels and Marx in “The Communist Manifesto”, wrapped up in idiomatically up-to-date, politically-correct adjectives. Please note that this is not an accusation of plagiarism; it’s just an observation of the “look and feel” similarity.
Obama’s cabinet nominations, for the most part, can pass a Marxist credentials threshold test (his Secretary of Labor candidate seems especially strong in this regard).
It is therefore not unreasonable to deduce that Barak Obama’s least ambition is to turn the United States into a European-style Socialist state, like many of the U. N. member countries. This would be in keeping with the Democratic Party outlook (except for that brief period during the Cold War when Socialism / Communism was not considered politically correct). How far beyond European-style Socialism Obama intends to move the U. S. remains unfathomable.
That leads us to wonder if Hugo Chavez has considered the implications of his protege’s parallel progress. The value of the United States as a villain and object for fear-mongering cannot be over-estimated; it has been Hugo’s best tool. How well will it work with Venezuela’s lower classes when they figure out that North America is now completely socialist—from Canada, through the U. S., to Mexico? What will happen when Venezuelans also notice that the workers’ paradises of North America at present look a lot better than that of Hugo Chavez?
How will Hugo take it if some of his fellow Latin American dictators find a better star to follow, one in the hated Estados Unidos de Norteamerica? But, worse, what if Barak Obama sees himself as the emerging Josef Stalin of the Union of North and South American Socialist States? Hugo Chavez may want to seek psychiatric help right away, just in case.
Tags: Barak Obama, Das Kapital, Friedrich Engels, Hugo Chavez, Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto, Venezuela
