Chavez-o-philes

It was like a double-slap this morning: first in The Wall Street Journal I read about Hugo Chavez-o-philes in the U.S. who have formed circles to demonstrate, write letters to the editor on his behalf, and generally gather to sip chai and denounce the totalitarian United States of America. Oh well, I tell myself, these are ignorant and small-minded people; one can hardly blame them.

Then I see a letter in The Atlantic Monthly, one of those breathless affairs signed by a dozen or so professors (and really, do any of us afford less trust to a collection of used car salesmen?), denouncing Franklin Foer's recent article criticizing Chavez for, among other things, eviscerating Venezuelan courts and destroying what passed in his country for property rights.

Not that they, being of the professoriate, care one whit about the rule of law or property rights, or even understand the importance of these institutions to peace and prosperity. No, their issue with Mr. Foer is that he doesn't acknowledge all the good Senor Chavez is doing for his country.

This puts me in mind of something the wise and curmudgeonly John Derbyshire once wrote: "Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy."