Hugo Chavez is dead

[Cain]

Where's my expected orgy of Serious Liberals celebrating the death of history's greatest monster?

[LMNO]

THAT BASTARD GAVE AWAY OIL PROFITS TO THE POOR!  MAY HE BURN IN SOCIALIST HELL!

[EK WAFFLR]

I haven't seen a single reaction to it, yet. I wonder why.

[AFK]

I think Sean Penn said something publicly about it, but it's Sean Penn, who's basically the Hollywood Bono, so I couldn't be bothered to click the link.

[Lenin McCarthy]

I've seen a few comments from leftists saying he wasn't all bad, and a few comments from rightists saying that leftists who mourn Chavez' death prove they're extremist undemocratic anti-Western aspiring autocrats.

[Elder Iptuous]

I heard about it heading out from work yesterday on NPR.  they seemed to be treating the story with kid gloves, and it seems to me that the various media outlets that try to maintain some semblance of objectivity were somewhat deer-in-the-headlights about how to handle it.  what type of language to use etc.  I personally don't know enough about the guy or his actions to have a worthwhile opinion beyond 'cancer sucks, and i feel bad for him about that'.
however, the awkwardness in the media makes me smile.

[Cain]

Check out the opinions sections.

HUGO CHAVEZ WAS A EVIL DICTATOR WHO, UH, SHUT DOWN A TV STATION THAT WAS COMPLICIT IN A MILITARY COUP AGAINST HIM.  ALSO A DICTATOR DESPITE FREE, FAIR AND HEAVILY CONTESTED ELECTIONS.

The latter opinion is courtest of the BBC, who see no irony in referring to closely contested elections and dictatorship in the same sentence.

I'll admit, Chavez is not my cup of tea.  Neither is, for example, Putin, with whom he has certain...similarities.  But then again, neither was the former Premier of Georgia...or the rulers of Saudi Arabia, both of whom are far worse than Chavez ever was, yet strongly supported by many of his critics.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Check out the opinions sections.

HUGO CHAVEZ WAS A EVIL DICTATOR WHO, UH, SHUT DOWN A TV STATION THAT WAS COMPLICIT IN A MILITARY COUP AGAINST HIM.  ALSO A DICTATOR DESPITE FREE, FAIR AND HEAVILY CONTESTED ELECTIONS.

The latter opinion is courtest of the BBC, who see no irony in referring to closely contested elections and dictatorship in the same sentence.

I'll admit, Chavez is not my cup of tea.  Neither is, for example, Putin, with whom he has certain...similarities.  But then again, neither was the former Premier of Georgia...or the rulers of Saudi Arabia, both of whom are far worse than Chavez ever was, yet strongly supported by many of his critics.

I liked him.  He wasn't my problem, and he punked Bush out a time or ten.

[Cain]

His attacks were pretty amusing.  You'll also notice, a lot of the sensible liberal outrage towards Chavez developed when he continued mocking America once Bush was out of office, and Obama was in.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

One of my favorites is when he promised the un that he wouldnt talk as long as gaddafi

[Juana]

"Democracy will finally come to Venezuela!" <-- literally the only thing I've heard from anyone outside PeeDee on the subject.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

His attacks were pretty amusing.  You'll also notice, a lot of the sensible liberal outrage towards Chavez developed when he continued mocking America once Bush was out of office, and Obama was in.

Makes me like him more, Cain.

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

I'm taking it as an opportunity to learn more about him. I'd kind of been pretty lazy about just buying into the mainstream rhetoric, much of which, in the last 24 hours has been revealed as utter bullshit.

But yeah, the cognitive dissonance from the "respectable" left is more than a little hilarious.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

I'm taking it as an opportunity to learn more about him. I'd kind of been pretty lazy about just buying into the mainstream rhetoric, much of which, in the last 24 hours has been revealed as utter bullshit.

But yeah, the cognitive dissonance from the "respectable" left is more than a little hilarious.

Bullshit? What, next you're going to try to tell me that Bush Jr. wasn't fiercely defending liberty with the Patriot Act, and Obama's years as a "Constitutional Law Professor" should have acquainted him with some of the more obscure concepts in the American justice system, like "Due Process."

Hugo Chavez was a monster. I mean, I don't personally have video of him eating children, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And he makes people in Venezuela pay as much as FOUR CENTS per gallon of gasoline. And that's why they HATE him, and cannot wait to toss his ruling party out on their asses in the next election, which the US is sure to stay out of and allow to play out fairly.

[Cain]

Here's a good piece of Serious Liberalism:

Perhaps in trying to evaluate the astonishing rule of Hugo Chávez the question to ask is this: whether the people he leaves behind regressed into a kind of childhood faith and dependency under his spell and what the price of such regression might be. Perhaps this is the state brought forth by those rulers we call caudillos—willful chieftans who rule by force of personality—of which Hugo Chávez Frías may have been the greatest of all. "There is no chavismo without Chavez," he proclaimed repeatedly. Who now will dry Venezuela's tears?

Those poor, childlike Venezuelans, in thrall to the politics of personality and the charisma of their local strongman.

As Corey Robin points out, they are nothing at all like Americans:

We live in a country where, depending on which party is in control of the White House, some not insignificant portion of the population thinks it's okay for the president to have the power to order extrajudicial killings simply because...they trust him. They like him. They can imagine having a beer with him. They like his wife. Her bangs. Their daughters. Or any one of a number of possible reasons of the republic.