You know the world is about to end when Nancy Pelosi rushes to the media to defend President Bush. Either that or Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has just spewed out another unbelievably ridiculous anti-American Bush bashing speech that even Democrats are appalled about.
This past week at the United Nations, Chavez stood before the General Assembly and literally waved a Noam Chomsky book in the delegates’ faces while ranting about how “President Bush is the devil.” Chavez, while no stranger to radical rhetoric, somehow managed to make himself look worse in the eyes of the international community. He was able to simultaneously waste everyone’s time and show his hypocrisy and lack of credibility. And the United Nations is actually considering giving his country a seat on the Security Council.
His radical anti-Americanism is getting old fast. He continuously lashes out at the evil capitalists and the “American Empire.” He rants and raves against our way of life, claiming to be a benevolent “man of the people.” Maybe he isn’t aware that in his totalitarian dictatorship, his socialist policies have led to a 53 percent poverty rate, terrible living conditions and rampant crime and vigilantism in the country he rules over. If Chavez wants to find a place to end the oppression of the working man, he need no look further than his own tattered and tumultuous country.
The United Nations already has enough problems with credibility and effectiveness. Allowing this tin-pot dictator a bully pulpit to blather on about the social injustices of the world is outrageous. We shouldn’t even allow this tyrant to enter our airspace, let alone waste our valuable time and resources listening to him speak.
So Hugo, next time you want to come over to bash our president, schmooze it up with Cindy Sheehan and give book plugs for Chomsky, do us a favor: Save yourself the trip and stay in Venezuela. Things are pretty bad down there. Your country needs you a lot more than we do.
– Dave Moberg is a middler political science major and president of the College Republicans.
