Well there goes the neighborhood.....

In a move used by dictators since the days of Julius Caesar, Hugo Chavez was:

granted free rein Wednesday to accelerate changes in broad areas of society by presidential decree — a move critics said propels Venezuela toward dictatorship. (source: the AP in the Houston Chronicle)

The article, written by Fabiola Sanchez, proceeds to describe the scene in a "downtown square." There she quotes National Assembly President Cilia Flores: "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"

Where to begin?

I understand that there is some standard of objectivity that all journalists are supposed to aspire to. I also understand that after a legislature grants a president "free rein" in a "downtown square" to legislate by proclamation, that a killjoy article about the inevitable glorious society that is about to be realized may have fatal consequences. Somehow I wish that other words were written. Words that reflect the world's last one hundred years of experience dealing with men granted such power by such means.

Here are a few predictions that I fear are certainties, or even realities:

Expect that the political opposition will be quickly eliminated by various means. Some may have already seen the writing on the wall long before today and have already gone into exile. Some brave men and women, will attempt to stand up and speak out. They will go to prison or to the firing line. Chavez seems to idolize Fidel Castro, I'm sure he's already tapped the expertise available there in learning how to control a population. Lenin's bloody hand will reach out from the past century and once again trouble this one.

The enemies of the United States will be granted sanctuary and support in Venezuela. In fact enemies of any free nation in the hemisphere will gain it

Don't expect to hear much out of the press. Every dictator in the past 100 years has seized control of the media in his country. Many also seek to co-opt or coerce foreign media to control their tone, or feed wholesale propaganda back to their home countries. Can anyone name any dictator in the past 100 years who hasn't?

The left will hail the brave new experiment in Venezuela, but it will end in the same bloody shambles that all before it has.

Upset special: Chavez will go after the Scouting movement in Venezuela. Nazi Germany suppressed the scouts. Soviet Russia suppressed the scouts. Something I've noticed about totalitarian regimes is that they always do this in favor of some sort of political indoctrination youth movement.