The Accidental Revolutionary, by James Wolcott

Hugo Chavez calls him "Mr. Danger." He is a man of action, a man of conviction, a man of motor oil. By wiping out on his bike in a mighty cloud of dust, Mr. Danger has managed to unify an entire hemisphere.

"Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure?" marvels Nick Miroff (via TomDispatch).

"At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional independence and self-determination. He's helped forge new trade partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that's sweeping the hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next.

"Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? ...Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva? Bolivia's coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales?

"¡Epa! It's George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary.

"In the past five years, the swaggering Texan has inspired a leftward surge that is uniting Latin America and threatening to knock Che Guevara right off all those natty t-shirts.

"When Che's ill-fated insurgency ended in the jungles of Bolivia with his death in 1967, his vision of a single, unified, socialist continent remained utterly unfulfilled. U.S.-backed right-wing military dictators would rule much of Latin America over the ensuing two decades, and many of Che's followers would be tortured and killed in efforts to overthrow them.

"As democracy returned to the region at the end of the Cold War, most Latin American governments rushed to embrace the 'Washington consensus' -- market-oriented liberalization policies that cut social spending and privatized national industries in order to pay down national debts. But the formula, pushed on the region by successive American presidents, largely failed to deliver the goods and left entire governments bankrupt and beholden to foreign lenders. For Latin America's angry, marginalized, impoverished masses, already-threadbare social safety nets only unraveled further.

"'The macroeconomic proposals of the Washington consensus have not been working,' says Guillermo Delgado, professor of Latin American Studies at UC Santa Cruz. 'That model was supposed to create prosperity and, after so many years, such prosperity has not been seen and class polarization has grown deeper.'

"Sensing an opportunity, new social and political movements in the region began marshalling their forces. Then George W. Bush came along, combining Yankee hubris with a Che-worthy radicalizing touch.

"Bush has since presided over one of the most significant political re-alignments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. By this summer, every major Latin American nation but Colombia is likely to be run by elected leaders with stronger backgrounds in Marx than free markets. If Cold War-era 'domino theory' has been a bust in the Middle East, it's working with textbook precision in Latin America."

9/11 and the thirst to overthrow Saddam Hussein led to neglect of our southern neighbors, despite Bush's enjoyment of laying a little Spanish on his audiences.

"But Latin America's leftward shift stems from more than White House distraction," Miroff avers, a verb that's really catching on. "It's not that the United States is acting aloof with its neighbors; rather, we're the worst-behaved homeowner on the block. We fly the biggest flag, make the loudest demands, and on top of it all, we don't even like having guests over. Sure, the United States has treated Latin America as its 'backyard' for two hundred years -- but now, Bush's own party wants to fence it off.

"House Republicans recently approved a plan to erect a 2,000-mile, Israeli-style barrier that would wall off Mexico and the rest of Latin America. The plan isn't expected to survive a Senate vote, but it sums up the current state of north-south relations quite well. And it's been a godsend for the presidential campaign of left-wing Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leading candidate in the July 2nd elections and a frequent Bush critic.

"For Lopez Obrador, the border fence proposal is proof that NAFTA is faltering and that outgoing President Vicente Fox was on the wrong end of the rope in his faux-ranchero friendship with Bush. Fox had staked his presidential reputation on securing an immigration accord with the Bush administration, and his failure has made excellent fodder for Lopez Obrador's campaign. His election victory in July would leave the last domino leaning right on Washington's doorstep."

I would say that given the stupendous size and organizational muscle of the demonstrations this weekend, that's a helluva large domino leaning across the capitol, one that might crush a lot of politicians should it fall.