Is Venezuela MORE free than the US under Bush?

[ck4829]

1. Chavez can face a recall, Bush can't

Try calling for something to oust Bush, and you'll probably get put on an enemy's list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez#Allegations_of_electoral_fraud_and_abuse

2. Is this:

Take a look at that Anti-Chavez rally, you can protest against Bush too, but you have to get inside a 'free speech zone' first.

3. You can call for the death of Hugo Chavez and nothing bad will happen to you, but criticizing the vice-president will get you charged for assault.

So, ask yourself, who is actually more free?

[davidinalameda]

1. where was Chavez in relationship to that march

was he close to it

[Greyhound]

2. You make a good point and I generally like Chavez and support what he has done,

but we shouldn't forget what day to day life in Venezuela is really like. The ruling class live in strictly segregated and armed enclaves (and by armed I don't mean a couple of rent-a-cops at an electronic gate, we're talking machine gun emplacements, tank traps, mines, the works), the poor live in squalor as bad as any other third world shit hole, and the middle-class, that razor thin buffer between the lords and the masses, are literally stuck in the middle.

As I said before, you do make good points about the relative liberty there versus here, and isn't it sad that most amerikans are not aware of how far we've fallen, that such a recently liberated country has already surpassed us, becoming more free while we are in a total surrender mode of though through nothing more than rampant ignorance.

[KSU Wildcat]

5. The poor in Venezuela have never had it so good.

Under Chavez poverty is fast going away. The rich are not getting richer and the poor are getting fewer and fewer. Under Chavez the poor advancing and moving up at a very fast rate. That is why Chavez will be re-elected by an overwhelming majority without a hint of voter fraud.

[Flanker]

3. Here is the election article I have been helping write

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_presidential_election%2C_2006

[Peace Patriot]

4. Well, I think the key to how much democracy we have here may be

glimpsed in how much of OUR money is being spent to undermine and destroy democracy in Venezuela and other Latin American countries. How much control do the American people have over the use of OUR money for these nefarious purposes?

Take a gander at this, for instance--a PR campaign out of Washington DC, by USAID and NED (US tax funded)--to stir up riots and another military coup after the December election in Venezuela:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x460259

The money spent to undermine and destroy democracy in Venezuela is also an indication of how much OUR rulers FEAR their democracy--as they fear--nay, hate--democracy here as well.

When the American people are in a position to SUPPORT democracies and progressive policies elsewhere in the world--as we should be doing--THEN we will have democracy HERE. As long as these fascist Bushite policies remain out of our control, we don't really have a democracy. We have a tyranny.