Chavez, that scwewy wabbit!

As has been reported in the news, our friend in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has passed a referendum eliminating a term-limit for the presidency. He also declares that "those who voted "yes" today voted for socialism, for revolution" (Yahoo!news).

Call me paranoid, but isn't this sort of what Hitler did? The Wiemar republic, the economic crash, the enactment of the emergency dictator position, any of that ring a bell? Once he became temporary dictator, he quickly moved into dictator-for-life. What happened next is history. Cold, brutal history.

I am reminded of Calvin and Hobbes, one of my favorite comic strips growing up. There was the G.R.O.S.S. club, where Calvin was dictator for life. He and Hobbes went about terrorizing Susie. While it was all innocent childhood fun, let us pause for a moment and use this as an analogy for Hugo "The Man" Chavez.

Will his success, which he blatantly cites as a victory for socialism in the above quote, lead to fascism? It did for an economically distraught Germany. Venezuela has had its fair share of struggles, but the economy is growing under Chavez. Will they cave into nationalism and become aggressive? South America already has a reputation for social chaos. If they do become aggressive, will they turn on capitalist states like America and the European Union? This all sounds a bit extreme, in terms of drawing conclusions, but it is definitely food for thought.

In my opinion, worst case scenario: World War Four (who are we kidding, we're pretty much in World War III already) with the South American dictatorships against the North American capitalists, like a bad game of Risk.

Best case scenario: Venezuela successfully integrates socialism and the economy grows, bringing with it a better quality of life for Venezuelans.

However, despite my analysis, whether it is valid is your call, we can only wait and see what happens.

Until next time, when I bring up another one of our favorite friends, Kim Jong Il, and his stylin' hairdo...