In a move that comes as no surprise, Hugo Chavez won another 6-year term as president and fascist-in-chief of Venezuela. Chavez won over 60% of the vote during Sunday’s election. Considering the fact that Chavez’s government controls the media, the legislature (100% of the seats) and the elections board, Chavez’s re-election was a forgone conclusion.

With this victory, Chavez has been granted a mandate to push through constitutional “reforms” that will abolish term limits, allowing Chavez to remain in office for decades if he so desires, and make no mistake about it, he certainly desires, and the vast Venezuelan populace desire to sustain their “benefactor” for as long as he wants the top job.

Chavez’s victory also ensures a continued threat to the US, made all the worse by our continued dependence on foreign oil. Chavez’s victory also speaks to the success of the politics of demagoguery, how else would one endeavor to explain how a political failure, one who has failed to fulfill any of his pledges, could win such a staggering victory?

The answer to this question lies in the politics of distraction and a keen ability to pull a Mussolini. Chavez, like most leftists borrows from Il Duce and stresses the importance of blaming others for your problems. In this way Chavez can blame the US for much of Venezuela’s woes, while leftist closer to home blame Wal-Mart, outsourcing, the “rich,” and so on and so forth.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/04/venezuela.election/index.html