SUBVERTING DEMOCRACY – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  We may not often think about it, but some of the world's most degenerate dictators rose to power through democratic elections...only to destroy democracy once they had the power to do so.  Think Hitler, Adolf.  And now think Chavez, Hugo.  From The Washington Times:

The United States isn't the only country suffering a lame-duck power grab. On Friday, Venezuela's outgoing socialist-dominated parliament granted President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months. If democracy is not already dead in Venezuela, it's about to breathe its last breath.

Chavez's drive for dictatorship comes in the wake of an unexpected electoral reverse. In September's parliamentary elections, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which had controlled 83 percent of the legislative seats, dropped to 59 percent control, while the opposition Coalition for Democratic Unity surged from 4 percent to 40 percent. More troubling to Chavez was that his party attracted only 48 percent of the popular vote against the opposition's 47 percent. Had the election been more free and fair, the opposition likely would have found itself in the majority.

The new parliament doesn't sit until Jan. 5 so the old majority took a page from the Pelosi-Reid playbook and decided to ram through as much of its unpopular agenda as possible while their supermajority lasted. The crowning achievement was the grant of dictatorial powers to Chavez, who - like President Obama - will face the electorate in 2012, if there is a Venezuelan electorate to face.

COMMENT:  It's discouraging to see how little editorial response there's been in this country to Chavez's power grab, a power grab that will, in all probability, lead to the end of whatever democracy is left in Venezuela.

One of the great myths is that intellectuals love freedom.  They often love it for themselves, but the record of intellectual classes in the last century is hardly encouraging.  We have seen intellectual elites too often embrace totalitarian regimes and philosophies, both German fascism and Soviet communism included.

Now we observe, once again, the silence of too many intellectuals, and editorial writers, in the face of the rising tide of dictatorship in Venezuela.  If certain "elites" accept it there, they'll accept it here, and you must never forget that.

December 22, 2010