I spend a lot of time in South America doing evangelism and missions work. I used to go to Venezuela a lot but it has gotten too dangerous for me to take students there at present. Venezuela suffered under Chavez and his democratic socialism for years and then God got rid of him and his successor, Maduro is now trying to fulfill CHavez' vision. Fortunately, the people have finally seen the light and ousted the revolutionaries from the Congress/Assembly but the country is in ruins. Chavez used to come onto tv and run his mouth for hours and hours in a stream of consciousness sort of way. He rose to power because the people thought they had a strong man who would beat back the imperialist countries and profiteering companies who took such advantage of them and throw out the bums, the corrupt politicians who were in their pockets. Well, it didn't work. THe country is much worse off now than even at the height of its days as a banana republic.However, I see a parallel between Chavez and D. J. Trump. and I'm not the only one. THe article below is from El Universal the daily newspaper of Venezuela. History is going to repeat itself if we don't learn from it.www.eluniversal.com/opinion/160319/trumps-way|share|OPINIONTrump's wayHis style is confrontational. He is irreverent, rude, and knows no limitsWhat makes people support an aggressive, segregationist, and obtuse leader? (File photo)CAROLINA JAIMES BRANGER | EL UNIVERSALSaturday March 19, 2016 12:00 AMVenezuelans know very well such a way of making politics. Like poles repel; unlike poles attract. That is a law, and it is true not only in physics. It is frequent in human relationships as well. It is also a rule in politics: extreme sides are alike, even though the doctrines proclaimed are radically opposed.As I follow the republican presidential campaign in which Donald Trump seems to be about to stand triumphant, I think about who similar to late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez he is.What makes people support an aggressive, segregationist, and obtuse leader? It has nothing to do with education: remember that the most cultured people in the world bought the speech of Adolf Hitler. It has nothing to do with religion either: horrible crimes have been committed in God's name throughout history. I believe it has to do more with basic instincts and lower passions, and, without a doubt, it takes more than education and religion to go against that.Trump –in the same style as Chávez when he was running for president- went even farther, and talked about killing those at odds with him. For the first time in the history of the United States a candidate uttered such nonsense in television. He said it backward and forward; kind of joking, kind of seriously, amid followers who cheered him.Freedom of speech? Saying something that disregards civism, democracy, and respect for the dissent cannot be called freedom. In another campaign event where Trump said that those who criticized him had to be hit, one of Trump's followers, John McGraw, assaulted a black man, Rakeem Jones, who had attended the event. The worst is that security handcuffed and arrested the victim, while McGraw was allowed to return to his seat.Is that what the military will do? General Michael Hayden told Msnbc: The military will not obey orders that break laws. It is not a riot, it is not a coup d'état. We will refuse to violate the law.A coupe of days later, Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, yanked journalist Michelle Fields. When he was questioned about the incident, he said that Fields was just an attention seeker. Here, in Venezuela, we have seen several seasons of that horror show. Unfortunately, no one learns from other people's experiences...
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