Habitual Meddlers

Trey Smith

Back during the George W. Bush neocon regime, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in his UN speech summed up George W. Bush for the world. I am quoting Chavez from memory, not verbatim. “Yesterday standing at this same podium was Satan himself, speaking as if he owned the world. You can still smell the sulfur.”

Chavez is one of the American right-wing’s favorite bogyman, because Chavez helps the people instead of bleeding them for the rich, which is Washington’s way. While Washington has driven all but the one percent into the ground, Chavez cut poverty in half, doubled university enrollment, and provided health care and old age pensions to millions of Venezuelans for the first time.

Little wonder he was elected to a fourth term as president despite the many millions of dollars Washington poured into the election campaign of Chavez’s opponent.

While Washington and the EU preach neoliberalism – the supremacy of capital over labor–South American politicians who reject Washington’s way are being elected and reelected in Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.

~ from Don’t Vote for Evil by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts ~

One of the quintessential elements of American Exceptionalism is that we can meddle in the democratic process of other nations, but they are not allowed to mess with ours!

Can you imagine the uproar it would cause if Venezuela, China or Egypt tried to manipulate the result of the current US presidential election? Both Democrats and Republicans would be outraged. The American people would be just as incensed. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the majority of my countrymen supported a full-scale military attack against such an intrusion.

Our sovereignty is not to be violated!!!!

And yet, our leaders have no compunction whatsoever in intruding in the electoral affairs of nations we don't like (i.e., the ones that don't do what we say or give us what we want). In the recent Venezuelan election, our government and corporate honchos steered millions of dollars to the opponent of popular President Hugo Chavez because we want to get this renegade out of office in the worst way possible.

It didn't work -- a strong majority of the people reelected Chavez -- but that's not the point. No, the point is that we tried very hard to alter the outcome of the election. We simply don't think too much about the sovereignty of other countries.