Saturday, July 01, 2006

Hugo Chavez: Classy like a trailer park.

Calling the United States "Count Dracula" and saying that low royalty payments by oil companies are "robbery" isn't just offensive, it's simply astounding. Hugo Chavez and Iran's President Ahmadinejad were in Banjul, Gambia at the African Union summit to try and forge a southern anti-American alliance. Chavez's attacks on capitalism are tired and stupid, so I'll ignore them. But actively trying to hurt the United States is pretty scary.

Of course, had Roosevelt never whipped out his big stick, this wouldn't be a problem. The United States would have remained like Washington wanted it to - its only foreign relations being trade - and everyone would be better off. But it hasn't, and we're faced with a problem: what do we do with those that hate America now?

Radical Islamic terrorists are one thing - get the government out of the Middle East, and they will calm down fairly soon. But those that wish to wage economic war - Venezuela, Iran, and, apparently, Africa - will have a hard time for a while distinguishing between American government and American traders. During that time, more anti-American sentiment will arise, and these countries will work harder to destroy our economy.

Part of their goal is the removal of the dollar as a universal currency. The United States needs to get off of fiat money anyways, and if the government can be reduced enough that our debt can be paid off, currency will not be a method of hurting the economy. But for that to happen, Libertarians need to be elected.

Taxing our natural resource development companies is another big part of their arsenal. That's something which is entirely within the bounds of foreign governments to do, though if I were a citizen of those governments I would oppose it. Even if they completely forbid American companies from doing business there, however, they will only hurt themselves in the long run, and the sooner they hit rock bottom with nationalization, the sooner those markets will open back up. To allow them to hit bottom quickly (it's something that will happen regardless), they need America to stop interfering in their domestic policy. And only by electing Libertarians can we get there.

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