http://twitter.com/CuffyMeh/statuses/309301491087319043
The dry humping began Tuesday night at The Nation with NYU professor Greg Grandin’s paean to Hugo Chavez.
The magazine that loved Stalin is back, baby! http://t.co/jIL1mbeuFZ
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) March 6, 2013
Summary: @thenation praises Chavez's authoritarian rule; craps their pants over Republican filibusters.
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) March 6, 2013
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/statuses/309292005761093632
But it wasn’t all breathless swooning. Evidently, the Venezuelan tyrant had his flaws — like not being “authoritarian enough.”
He packed the courts, hounded the corporate media, legislated by decree and pretty much did away with any effective system of institutional checks or balances. But I’ll be perverse and argue that the biggest problem Venezuela faced during his rule was not that Chávez was authoritarian but that he wasn’t authoritarian enough. It wasn’t too much control that was the problem but too little.
Leftist magazine, The Nation, says Hugo Chavez wasn’t authoritarian enough. Yet, Leftists still get offended when you call them commies.
— RBe (@RBPundit) March 6, 2013
# The Nation magazine, a reliable friend of the left no matter how extreme, laments today that Chavez, like Obama, hadn't enough power.
— Jerry Jay Carroll (@Jjc1Jerry) March 6, 2013
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/statuses/309298771282497537
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/309300450878963712
And then, a rare admission:
Writer for The Nation refers to himself as a 'useful idiot for Chavez.' Good Lord. http://t.co/kj8MK6KK1N
— big tuna (@keder) March 6, 2013
Really:
I’m what they call a useful idiot when it comes to Hugo Chávez, if only because rank-and-file social organizations that to me seem worthy of support in Venezuela continued to support him until the end.
Useful idiot, indeed.
"I’m what they call a useful idiot when it comes to Hugo Chávez." #agreed. http://t.co/Fpg15pqeql
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 6, 2013
It will be interesting to see if The Nation condemns this like National Review condemned Derbyshire's racist column http://t.co/eRl8Vf7nN3
— Jon Henke (@JonHenke) March 6, 2013
Er, don’t hold your breath on that one. The Nation called Grandin’s eulogy “epic and extremely smart.”
Greg Grandin's epic and extremely smart political obit of Hugo Chavez http://t.co/gfZ5kaUjpA
— The Nation (@thenation) March 6, 2013
Related:
New York Times reporters swoon over tyrant who silenced Venezuelan press
Michael Moore recalls his special hour with Hugo Chavez, blaming Bush
Oliver Stone tweets that Chavez ‘will live forever in history’
Jimmy Carter wants Hugo Chavez remembered for ‘gains made for the poor and vulnerable’
Appalling: Media swoon over crooner Hugo Chavez; Just a ‘firebrand,’ ‘hero to Venezuela’s poor’
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