Who is the U.S. equivalent of Hugo Chavez, and why isn't he/she President?

[begin_within]

[DELUSIONAL]

1. They were assassinated --

[nine23]

3. Good answer. Seriously.

[deutsey]

9. I have believed for sometime that anyone who seriously threatens

the US power structure from within will meet with an untimely death.

Just look at the "hit list" of the '60s. An entire generation of leadership wiped out through violent force.

Don't tell me it was "all just a coincidence."

[melody]

13. absolutely

Most people of power who care too much (to the minds of the puppetmasters) about the average person in this country, die. The good people who survive are either lucky, useful to the masters, or their family is powerful enough to know where some of the bodies are buried.

[nonconformist]

24. Yep. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Right now Kuckinich and if he gets too out of hand he will earn

a bullet, th BFEE does not like challengers and Kucinish is a real challenge

[CrispyQ]

5. I love Kucinich, but does anyone listen to him?

Besides us, of course.

I never see any mention of him in the news, in papers. Most people don't even know who he is. Do you really think the administration sees him as a challenge?

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Yes, they see him as a challenge

hence why you so rarely see him out side of his district on the teevee... he could be the next Wellstone easy and if the country, or rather when the country sinks into a depresion he is exactly what they fear.

By the by, the elites in Venezuela kept Chaves in the same hole until he broke out.

[Beam Me Up]

19. There are many ways to "assasinate" a message. Mussel it is one.

Take away the soapbox and what do you have? This is why 'new media' and the internet are so important. Unfortunately it doesn't have the pervasive impact that the Corporate Owned News has.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Dennis, Bernie, the progressive members of the CBC.... but

they can't get elected under the crappy system we have now, and we can't get rid of the sustem from the top down becuase the powers that be LOVE the way things work these days.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. It is time that people realize

that in the course of human events there are times that the political proces no longer works. that is the time when there are two choices... do nothing, or you get the drift... and we are at that point.

[Cha]

4. Is there an "equivalent" in

the US to Hugo Chavez?

"Who is Hugo Chavez?"
~Snip~

"He is, of course, the President of Venezuela, the man that American evangelist Pat Robinson would like to see assassinated, the politician that is substantially supported by his people. But what is he actually doing in Venezuela and is this really a threat to the United States? Richard Gott has just written a biography of Hugo Chavez and this week offered this sympathetic portrait of someone he describes as "a genuinely revolutionary figure, one of those larger-than-life characters who surface regularly in the history of Latin America - and achieve power perhaps twice in a hundred years".
What of his policies? Gott writes: ”… although his rhetoric is revolutionary, his reforms have been moderate and social democratic. He criticises the policies of “savage neo-liberalism” that have done so much harm to the poorer peoples of Venezuela and Latin America in the past 20 years, yet the private sector is still alive and well. His land reform is aimed chiefly at unproductive land and provides for compensation. His most obvious achievement, which should not have been controversial, has been to channel increased oil revenues into a fresh range of social projects that bring health and education into neglected shanty-towns."

More..
http://rogerdarlington.co.uk/nighthawk/permalink.php?id=1875_0_1_0

[hardrainfallin]

7. Winona LaDuke

why she isn't running..... to cite Laurie Anderson "I could write a book, and this book would be thick enough to stun an ox!"

[I_am_Spartacus]

8. MLK?

FDR? Lincoln? Washington?

Wish we had someone like that alive today.

[TheStates]

10. Probably Howard Dean......

He isn't there because of a Diebold situation.....I can tell.

[shance]

12. A Dean/Galloway ticket would be the best med for this country.

n/t

[TahitiNut]

11. Ralph Nader

:evilgrin: Let's find those aneurisms ready to blow.

[hardrainfallin]

15. why would you pick Nader over LaDuke--do people not

get the fact that Chavez is (South) American INDIAN and that 90-99% of his philosophy is the result of his being Indian?

(why LaDuke isn't a candidate....uh ....maybe because the genocide against American Indians was more "successful" (i.e. more complete) in North America than it was in South America and that there is so much latent (and overt) Indian-hating (I'm quoting LaDuke there) in this country that even when LaDuke ran alongside Nader, no one so much as SAW her?

imo, the fact that Chavez is a member of a "minority" rules out any and all white candidates as his "equal" --

if having a penis is a prerequisite, which appears to be the case here, I would suggest CONYERS would be the closest equivalent to Chavez

[ck4829]

14. This person...

was either in a car that somehow exploded

shot himself/herself twice in the head

or was in an airplane accident

[malaise]

16. Nader is probably the closest to a social democrat

in the US. It is unbelievable in 2005 that the US has little understanding of social democracy. Indeed even the Dems intolerance of socialists has weakened their own movement. The Democratic party once practiced a version of social democracy but they appear to be afraid of their shadow. Why so many Dems hate the term liberal suggests that some elements are afraid of their own shadow and their glorious past linked to progressive movements.

It is amusing because all over Europe and in most of the hemisphere, socialists are quite proud of their world view and are strong enough in many places to control several parliamentary seats.

Edit -sp.

[hardrainfallin]

17. how is nader closer to a soc dem than LA DUKE, his former running mate?

[malaise]

22. Valid point n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

21. Imagine if, in the span of five years in the 1980s,

Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Jerry Falwell and Newt Gingrich had all been assassinated. Would the Right have been able to make up for their loss? Would they have been satisfied with explanations of "lone gunmen," extraordinary coincidence and suppressed evidence?

That's what happened to the American Left from 1963 to '68, with the executions of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK Jr and RFK.

That's why America's Hugo Chavez isn't President. Also why Minnesota's Hugo Chavez is no longer its Senator.

[malaise]

23. True but wait has been 40 years

Time for a real new deal.

[hardrainfallin]

27. minnesota's chavez, LaDuke, is still alive n/t

wellstone was great, but he was still a privileged white male.

[understandinglife]

25. Congressman John Conyers

Peace.

[hardrainfallin]

26. already nominated in post 15

one advantage he has over LaDuke is that he is "anatomically correct" (ie in possession of a penis)

if latent racism and sexism weren't all pervasive in this society (with the exception of liberal message boards of course :sarcasm:

the first and most obvious ticket for a Chavez-like pair would have to be

Conyers-LaDuke

but I don't believe the PEOPLE of this country will ever accept leadership from Blacks or Indians, and certainly not from women.

Lip service to diversity, you bet. Lots of it.

Beyond that............................................................FLATLINE

[killbotfactory]

28. They would have to run as a stealth candidate

Otherwise they would end up dead in purely coincidental circumstances, I assure you.