Excerpt:
Communism is dead in Russia, a shell of itself in China and just hanging on in Cuba. But Lenin's corpse has a rare reason to smile. A new workers' paradise is sprouting in Venezuela, under the direction of the sometimes clownish but always cunning President Hugo Chavez.
Most of the rest of the world learned the folly of autocratic socialism back in the 20th century, but Chavez prefers to repeat mistakes rather than learn from them. He has nationalized oil holdings, created new state-run firms, confiscated privately owned land and politicized finance, while endeavoring to take over telecommunications and power companies.
Building earthly utopias through big government again proves to be to big a temptation for humans to endure. And once again it will crumble down in the face of stark reality. Once oil prices slide downward the "revolution" will be dead in the water. I have little doubt that some far left progressives in this country look at Venezuela with envy. While I hear them rightly criticize W. for his expansion of executive power and curtailment of civil liberties, I have a sneaking suspicion that some would change their tune if it was "their" guy.
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