Why bother the critter citizens with getting off their couch and voting, worrying their simple minds in trying to decide which way to vote, or even trying to decide to vote at all. And then someone has to count the votes, might even have to get some judges involved. Troublesome.

Hitler once said he was not a Dictator, he just simplified Democracy. Chavez has to get with it man, Democratic Socialism is bad. Kiss it (Keep it simple stupid).

Seriously, Democratic Capitalism is the way to go, heck, just Capitalism is all you need. Mussolini said Fascism was better named as Corporatism, and Grandpappy Bush was an admirer. GW Bush agreed and said I wish I could be a Dictator, my job would be a lot easier. And so it was done, and the American Empire was born, or at least it grew bigger (burp). May Democracy RIP. Corporatism rules. Divide and Rule baby!

Your primary source is a propaganda piece. Look at how the author uses language to gently prod you into supporting these measures without any critical thought.

“Deepening(?)” Please!

I say this as a mostly-leftist. I believe in socialism, and I think we will come to embrace it as our ecological and humanitarian disasters worsen, and coelesce.

Or we will perish.

But, examine two proposals that you do not only not question, you laud: direct presidential military promotion, and lowering the voting age.

Giving a president the power to promote officers(one supposes) removes the President from the civilian world and puts him squarely in the military.
And what crazy colonel or master sergeant (or buck private, or draft-dodger) would George W. Bush promote if given this chance? Think about it!

And think about the last few 16-year-olds you interacted with. Trust them to vote for your president, much?

They’d vote you off the Island, for sure, or vote for their favorite commercial, and suffer buyers’ remorse for the next seven years. And Chavez know that, and so does George.

I agree with progressivism. I believe our only path to enlightenment and to salvation from this fast-approaching, self-imposed hell leads through the knowledge that we are One. Progressivism leads to that goal.

But don’t saint anybody in your religion politics without hearing, or reading, the source.

I admire Chavez, though I definitely don’t agree with him on even these two far-reaching (maybe fascist) Constitutional “changes.” Who knows what else he dreams? And what else he can countenance to pursue his truth?

But, I’ll give it to Hugo Chavez, he put it to a vote, and lost.

Watch out what you raise up. Examine it close.

For more on the theory of mutual aid, go here and here.

I just got here, Snarky, and stopped to read first.

Hey, I think there’s another way to read this media coverage.
PW’s analysis assumes that the media and their readers actually care about what is happening in Venezuela. I’m not sure this is true.

Could we have here one of those analogical kabuki thingies, like maybe a morality play, whereby the reporter is not really writing about Venezuela at all, but instead is “really” writing about George Bush and American democracy, to convey hope to the readers that we’re not really sliding towards fascism after all? And that George “29%” Bush will go quietly into that good night in January, 2009, whereupon we can all heave a huge collective sigh of relief about how wonderful our democracy is?

Bob in HI