Yes, times have changed. Under the careful guidance of Fidel Castro, the driving force behind the Sao Paulo Forum, a new method of gaining power has emerged: 1) Get elected through the system, 2) change the constitution, 3) corrupt the elections 4) nationalize banks and industry and 5) punish your opposition. A leader needs to make just a few bold moves in each category so that all will get the message. According to Alejandro Peña Esclusa, the former Venezuelan presidential candidate who has been tried on several occasions for his opposition to Hugo Chavez, this insidious method of instilling a totalitarian regime is now working in 17 Latin American countries.
“It would seem that the changes that started in Venezuela in the last decade of the 20th century have begun to reach North America,” Hugo Chavez said just last week even as he was jailing opposition mayors in at least three cities.
Now the president, however coyly, and the Democratic leadership, boldly, are seeking to prosecute the last administration for political disagreements by calling them crimes. They want to punish Bush officials who gave legal advice and permission to proceed with interrogation techniques including water boarding that documents show most assuredly saved American lives.
They have released top secret documents, jeopardizing American safety further by making the people who protect and defend us worried sick both for fear of retribution and the very real potential harm that could be done to the nation as a result.
Former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Karl Rove and attorneys at Justice and the CIA won’t be lined up and shot, but they will, if this insidious method of taking power has its way, be destroyed financially and personally—with their reputation in shreds.
And then who will stand up to speak against the dominant left? No one. And that’s the point.