Springtime in Chile

Another election, another left leaning government takes power in South America, as the repugnance of the Bush junta gives our nation a bad name even in our old, dependable spheres of influence. From the N.Y. Times:

SANTIAGO, Chile, March 11 — Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, pediatrician and former political prisoner and exile, was sworn in on Saturday as the first woman to be president of Chile, the culmination of its long and painful journey from repression and dictatorship to democracy.
[….]
Ms. Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was jailed for treason and died in prison after Gen. Augusto Pinochet took power in an American-supported coup in 1973.

Bachelet’s father was killed by our proxy dictator, Pinochet, who took power in a CIA-backed Sept. 11 coup. I’m sure she’s a real big fan of our country.

The United States’ moral authority, which was full of holes from actions like the Pinochet coup, has been exploded by the Bush regime. No longer do we even pretend to aspire to high ideals, like valuing universal human dignity or unassailable individual rights. Now, we invade your country, torture you, steal your resources, and blow up your temples.

No apologies folks, because, you know, 9/11 happened and stuff. Gotta stay safe at home.

As a result, with the strange exception of Canada, the nations of our own hemisphere are rushing to elect leaders who will refuse to do business as usual with the USA and our straw horses like the IMF and World Bank, or our voracious, rapacious oil companies and other exploiters of resources and labor. I say, hurray!

We barely have laws in the United States any more, much less a functional government, and the Katrina victims starving on television showed the world the horrors of our selfish culture in collapse.

Alas, we have no viable socialist party here. Just a two-headed Repuli-crat party, engorged by corporate pelf, that offers us the illusion, should we be stupid enough to buy it, that we live in some sort of democracy.