Latin America's 'pragmatic' pink tide

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW ^ | March 6, 2005 | Colin McNickle

[Tailgunner Joe]

Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises reminded in 1932 that the socialist movement takes great pains to frequently circulate new labels for its "ideally constructed state." Seventy-three years later, socialists still are playing that game.

Just as socialists masquerading as liberals in the United States now call themselves "progressives," apologians for this particularly odoriferous political philosophy in Latin America now call themselves "pragmatists."

Sadly, some in the media have become willing accomplices.

Uruguay last week became the sixth South American nation to install a socialist president. He's Tabare Vazquez, 65, a former cancer doctor who rose to power as so many socialists do -- on a populist platform. They promise the world to the disaffected and downtrodden. Capitalism? It hasn't worked. We have the answers. Details? Later, thank you.

The Wall Street Journal's David Luhnow reported that "Mr. Vazquez represents a new breed of pragmatic leftists in Latin America who hope to combine the left's traditional warm-hearted social goals with a newfound appreciation for cold economic calculus."

Vazquez will "almost certainly be pragmatic and moderate, mirroring the evolution of the 'left' in the region over the last generation." At least that's the opinion of Michael Shifter and Vinay Jawahar, the policy vice president and program associate, respectively, at Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

Larry Rohter, The New York Times' man in Montevideo, Uruguay, characterized President Vazquez's ascension as part of "not so much a red tide" sweeping South America "as a pink one."

"Doctrinaire socialism carries the day far less than pragmatism, an important change that makes this new political movement decidedly new," Mr. Rohter offered.

For those who don't know what socialism is or its history, that is.

[Tailgunner Joe]

"Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of socialism -- until it becomes obvious that nothing has changed but the name." - Ludwig von Mises

[John Lenin]

Socialism/Communism/Progressivism, is the road to terror and oppression.

Happens every time !

[libertylover]

Vazquez, reports The Times' Rohter, is promising that "the state will play a greater role and not leave the market to its own devices."

Like trying to "correct" the earth's orbit.

[Mike Darancette]

Celebrating South America's recent Parade of Paranoids.