Mugabe, Take Note

So Brad DeLong has a post about Zimbabwe's decline under Mugabe. I couldn't help thinking of a surefire way for Mugabe to salvage his reputation among leftists: criticize Bush.

You might say, "But no one would be stupid enough to excuse his human rights abuses and his disastrous economic policies just because he hates Bush, and Bush hates him." Maybe, but it's worked pretty well for Hugo Chavez, asshole president of Venezuala. Mention his horribly misguided economic policy to a liberal, and you're sure to hear, "Yes, but..." or, worse, a substantive defense.

I don't have all the data in front of me, and I don't have time to find it (paper due tomorrow), so I'll just mention two things about Chavez that lefties like to ignore.

First, he tried to take over the country in a failed coup of his own. This doesn't justify the later coup attempt against him, but neither does that later coup attempt mean that Chavez has any respect for democracy.

Also, enjoy this Chavez quotation (from tpmcafe): The world has enough for all, but a minority, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of those who cast out Bolivar from here and also crucified him in a way in Santa Marta, over in Colombia--a minority has appropriated the riches of the world, a minority has appropriated the gold of the planet, the silver, minerals, water, good earth, petroleum, wealth, and has concentrated it in a small number of hands.

Some liberals, including Rick Heller (who wrote the tmpcafe post), have rightly condemned the comment. Others, incredibly, have defended it. Several American and Venezualan Jewish groups have actually argued that he didn't mean the Jews, he meant the white imperialists who colonized Latin America. You know, the ones who killed Jesus.