Hugo Chavez needs to shut up.

I don't know why this man is still making headlines.  Chavez says this.  Chavez says that.  Chavez helped annoy the Saudis into leaving OPEC, at least temporarily (though that's not a bad thing for us).  The man just needs to shut up.

Hugo Chavez has delusions of credibility.  His only credibility is with nations who already don't like us (like Iran, a few tiny Central American countries, some parts of the EU, and their new friends in Russia).  The media reports on the things he says simply because he's bombastic and sensational enough to be interesting.  Well, that, and he's a nutso lefty.

In the first story I linked to, Chavez claims that the US government isn't going to be able to fix the economy (true, as far as that goes), that the government is trying to fix it by printing more money (not really true, but it sure seems like it), and that the US government wants to buy the world with worthless paper.  He said this while in France, meeting with the French president.  Remember what I said about countries who already don't like us?  The French president warned him not to say such things yet, that the US government was headed into an election, and that he was merely making a caricature of himself.  

The sad little king of a sad little hill didn't listen to the president of France--but then again, who does?  Today, he commented that the United States needed to draft a new constitution, one that would take our country in a more socialist direction, because he thinks that the current problems we're having with our economy can be traced directly back to capitalism.

News flash to the dictator of Venezuela: it isn't that our constitution that needs fixed, nor is it our capitalist system.  It's that our government has been systematically ignoring our constitution as it was written for years,by  taking on powers that were never allowed the federal government to interfere in commerce and capitalism.  Our federal government needs to be replaced, not our constitution.  The only thing that's kept our country as stable as it is (as opposed to most of Central and South America) is our people's belief in the founding documents, and the occasional bloodless rebellion that forces our government to pay attention to them again.

The United States was founded upon the rule of law.  The law is what's codified in the Constitution.  Without that, all we have are ever-changing precedents, like what most of the older countries in Europe depend upon, or the whim of dictators like Chavez.  The rule of law, and a people's strong belief in that rule of law, can weather any financial storm, given time.  

That's what Chavez wants changed.  He's not our friend.  He's not making recommendations for us to re-write our constitution because he wants to help.  He wants the United States unable to stand between him and what he wants.  With our constitution giving our people something to believe in, we will always stand between petty tyrants and their desires to expand their tyranny.  Without that belief, we will fall.  And that's what Chavez, and his new friends in Russia, Europe, and the Middle East, really want.