Venezuela is not a democracy

Leftwing activist Mark Weisbrot penned a frustrating piece in The Guardian this week claiming that America should refrain from supporting the ongoing efforts to topple the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela because he was elected democratically.

Weisbrot, who is co-director of the left wing think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research, cites his own pro-Chavez organization when he attempts to deflate arguments that the elections that kept Chavez and eventually Maduro in power were rigged. He claims the votes were counted fairly, thus proving Venezuela is a democracy.

That's dubious, but irrelevant even if it's true.

What Mark Weisbrot does not understand is that counting votes does not make an election a valid form of democracy. Political Scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita argues that to be considered a legitimate democracy, a nation must also have freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. Venezuela doesn't have either.

Those aren't elections in Venezela; they're a mummer's farce. Weisbrot's argument from democracy

It's also telling the way Weisbrot glosses over the authoritarian nature of Maduro's regime. The only reference to the brutal nature of Maduro and the struggle opposition leader Leopoldo López has endured was a weak throw away line that exists only to say that he acknowledged it.

Meanwhile, López is taunting Maduro on Twitter after the government made the mistake of threatening to arrest him: "Don't you have the guts to arrest me?" he tweeted on 14 February:

Made the mistake? It's as if Weisbrot thinks that was a simple, uncharacteristic accident.

An election does not make a bad idea good, and fake elections do not wash away blood. Weisbrot is a fanboy for authority, a Tom Parsons, and like Parsons he deserves to become a victim of the monster he loves.

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Socialism's tolerance problem

There's been plenty of great write-ups about why the death of Hugo Chavez isn't a tragedy. My favorites are from Nick Gillespie at Reason.com, Michael Moynihan at The Daily Beast, a Venezuelan citizen in a CNN.com comment and, most surprising, Zack Beauchamp at ThinkProgress. I also rediscovered a great piece from Christopher Hitchens about his impressions from meeting a deranged Chavez and the shameless propaganda employed when Chavez declared himself the reincarnation of Simón Bolívar while desecrating his corpse.

Every one of them is a gem, and props to Beauchamp for revealing that much of the supposed success of Chavez's anti-poverty policies really come from an ongoing South American trend.

So with that out of the way, there is something important I want to express about the difference between socialist and capitalist nations. Only one tolerates the other when they are in charge.

In capitalist nations, you're allowed to speak in support of socialism. You can have stupid little coffee houses or dirty book stores devoted to the subject. You're even allowed to build your own little Marxist commune and count down the days until it falls apart.

In socialist nations, supporting capitalism is a criminal offense. Basic human rights like freedom of speech are stamped down and spreading unauthorized messages is a crime against the state. Trying to establish a capitalist subculture can mean execution.

If I was a Venezuelan Chavez would have had me destroyed. If he was an American he would have been mocked, just as he is being mocked now.

It's clear to see which system has the moral high ground.
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New Year's Eve, socialism style

Hugo Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela, is not doing well following a cancer operation in Cuba, so the Venezuelan government has decided to show the peasants how real Marxists celebrate a holiday:

By staying home and praying things will get better.

Venezuela called off public New Year's Eve festivities on Monday and social media sizzled with worry after the government said cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.  

The streets of Caracas were quiet as front page headlines relayed that Mr Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery, on December 11 in Havana... 

Authorities canceled a New Year's eve concert in a downtown plaza and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas urged families "to ring in the New Year at home, praying and expressing hope for the health" of Mr Chavez.

You think with all the money he confiscates from his subjects he could afford to be a medical tourist in a better country than Cuba.
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