Say What?

Hello? Hello? Can you hear me now?

It's been a way long time gone since I've weighed in here--not that there have been a dearth of moments of danger, but if I were an NPR personality, I guess they'd have been saying "Ben Chappell is.... Away." Just haven't logged in for awhile.

But this is just too interesting not to comment. Marike and I have been watching casually but with interest the resurgence of the left in Latin America. Seems like the whole continent is joining in with those crowds in Mexico that met Salinas & Zedillo's promises of the bounty of free trade with "First World? Ha Ha Ha!"

Like Hamas's polling victory in Palestine, the elected left governments are a direct challenge to US lip service about democracy. If you go on and on about democracy and then you see it happen and the last people you (the empire) want elected end up on top, things get weird. Like this:

Marti, who died in 1895 during Cuba's war of independence with Spain, has been glorified in Cuba as the ultimate anti-imperialist, a label both Chavez and Castro have embraced for themselves in their struggles with the United States.

Far from seeing them as regional heroes, the Bush administration considers the men to be populists who threaten democracy and individual rights.

Rumsfeld expressed the same fears about Bolivia's new leftist president, Evo Morales, during a National Press Club appearance Thursday. "We've seen some populist leadership appealing to masses of people in those countries. And elections like Evo Morales in Bolivia take place that clearly are worrisome."

Ok, everybody follow that? Populists are people who threaten democracy and individual rights, principally by appealing to masses of people. I presume this explains why, rather than working to make Mexico more like the U.S., Curious George has been trying so hard to make the U.S. more like Mexico, i.e. tilting the whole economy toward the benefit of a smaller and smaller group. If he manages to alienate everybody and entrench policies that are beneficial to the richest few, at least no one can accuse him of being a populist (not even with the alien accent, for a Maine Yankee).

So, if a handful of people are pleased and the masses pissed, democracy is secure. Maybe this is one of those unknown knowns or something. Explain, please, Rummy. In the meantime, everybody vote for populist impeachers come this fall.