Sarah Palin vs. Hugo Chávez

The hypocrisy of the Republican Party does not seem to surprise me anymore. Sometimes I think that Republicans are in denial and lie to themselves to believe the non-sense that they reiterate. In fact, they seemed like zombies as they chanted, “USA or Drill, Drill, Drill” during John McCain’s speech.

Then I heard something that struck a chord with me. As Palin stood on the stage she touted how she fought the oil companies. She claimed to be a maverick and had stood up to big business. She secured $1200 per person for the state of Alaska due to her initiative. "It's a one-time, special return of the vast wealth that Alaska has right now. We're returning it to the resource owners, the people of Alaska," claims Palin. Republicans praised her and labeled her a reformer for this cause.

Then I thought of that guy down in South America that Republicans despise and labeled a Socialist Dictator. Hugo Chávez took similar approach as Palin when he assumed the Presidency of Venezuela. He used oil profits to fund social programs and aid the poor. In fact for a few years he subsidized oil for the poor in the U.S. who had trouble heating their homes during the winter.

Chávez is seen as a socialist for his approach not as a reformer. He stood up to big oil but Bush and company attacked him for that. Republicans look down upon Chávez for helping out his people but rally behind Palin when she does the same thing.

I am not the only one that has noted the comparison. Salon and Bloomberg each have their own pieces entertaining the concept. The hypocrisy from the Republicans is reprehensible. They suffer from “selective amnesia” and only seem to remember the facts that benefit their cause.

In Orwellian fashion they have touted how Palin is, “Pro-Drilling but Anti-Big Oil” as if that makes any sense. How can you be against an industry when you support their main source of income, it just does not make sense. There in lies my problem . . . I am trying to make sense of something that is not logical and never made it any sense.