A war is being waged on the democratic process around the world, a war which poses ultimately a greater peril than the bombs and bullets from militant Islam.
The two, however, are closely allied, at least for now.
The pattern of attack is similar around the world: a popularly elected leader uses his office to ensure that he remains perpetually in office and establish a socialist/communist regime allied with similar governments; freedom of the press is muted, freedom of expression is suppressed through militant youth gangs, and all meaningful opposition is criminalized.
The most obvious example of this perversion of the democratic process is the bumptious Latin American communist, Hugo Chavez, president of oil-rich Venezuela. A self-described follower of the long-dead Bolshevik revolution leader Leon Trotsky, Chavez used his election victory in 1998 to install a neo-communist dictatorship.
Chavez controls most major media outlets, and uses a youth gang called the Bolivarian Circle to intimidate those protesting his regime. Chavez has criminalized his opposition and forced politicians, military officers, business leaders, and oil executives to seek asylum outside Venezuela.
Waging an open war against capitalism
Waging an open war against capitalism, Chavez is nationalizing all major commercial and financial interests in his nation.
Sympathizers of Chavez who have gained power in Bolivia and Ecuador are following a similar program of oppression. Chavez's brand of Marxist totalitarianism, known generally as "Chavizmo," is a potent political force throughout Latin America. U.S. "educator," political activist, and early Barack Obama supporter, Bill Ayers, is a strong proponent of the Chavez regime.
Only Honduras thus far has been able to thwart the march of "Chavismo" and its election-to-dictatorship process.
Today's Russia is also using elections to support one-party rule. The world marveled at the expressions of social freedom as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. By the mid-1990s, however, communists were being recruited into the ranks of the government of Boris Yeltsin, and, in 1999, Yeltsin appointed ex-KGB spymaster Vladimir Putin as Prime Minister and de facto successor.
Putin's election was supported by the sudden appearance of a well-organized, well-financed pro-Kremlin party and ratified by a rigged election. After his election victory, Putin immediately began the gradual suppression of the Russian media. The veil of oppression which dropped over Russia included the murder of Kremlin opponents -- the killers seldom, if ever, found.
Even asylum in another nation did not mean safety for critics of the Moscow elite.
On November 23, 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, former internal security officer (KBG and its successor, the FSB) died in London from poisoning by radioactive polonium 210. Litvinenko accused the Kremlin of blowing up apartment houses in Moscow, using the explosions to provide a pretext for a second Chechen war.
The government of current Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is, for the most part, an extension of Putin-era policies. In late May, Medvedev launched a commission to guard against the "falsification" of history, which means that the Kremlin will dictate the official version of Russia's past, especially the Soviet-era. Not only are critics of current policy attacked, but those who do not hold the "correct" view of Russia's past are also in peril.
Following the recent visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Moscow, Medvedev and Obama established a commission to strengthen bi-lateral relations and "democratic values" between the United States and Russia. One of the individuals Medvedev placed on the Russian side of the commission was Vladislav Surkov, who is condemned by human rights advocates for his theory of "guided democracy" - the belief that the democratic process must be "managed" by a governmental elite.
In the United States, a similar pattern already seen in Latin America and Russia is beginning to emerge after the election of Obama and the Democrat party acquiring control of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Today, laws to restrict media free speech are being drafted, election fraud by pro-Obama activists threatens the integrity of the voting process, and members of the former administration of George W. Bush may face criminal charges from newly appointed Attorney General Eric Holder. For the first time in history, the U.S. census will be under the political control of the White House.
There also have been attempts to foster military-style youth groups supporting Obama, and a movement exists to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which would allow Obama to serve more than two terms. Both have received little media attention.
While opposing political voices are threatened with silence, the federal government is increasing its presence in the commercial and financial life of the United States through substantial loans or direct ownership of what had been privately-held corporations.
The fallacy persists in the Obama administration and the elite of the Democrat party that governmental intervention is superior to the workings of the market place for providing economic stability and prosperity.
America faces a very serious political challenge. With the executive and legislative branches in the hands of one party, the question will be whether the now dominant Democrats will seek to perpetuate their power and follow the example of Chavez and the Moscow elite, or adhere to the Constitution they swore to uphold and the democratic traditions held sacred by the vast majority of the electorate.
The future of America hangs in the balance.
