Are we headed toward a Venezuela crisis in America?

A story in the latest Time Magazine is almost exactly what I believe is happening here in the United States. Venezuela is having a horrible time under President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist prodigy of the former strongman Hugo Chavez, and what they are undergoing is similar where I think we are headed under our strongman. They are having riots there in protest to a virtual collapse of their economy. Maduro has closed down the opposition-controlled national assembly, banned its opposition leader Henrique Capriles from even campaigning for office for 15 years, and if Maduro calls in the army to gain control over the protesters, everything might come apart because there are questions about the army’s loyalty. We haven’t had violent protests like they are there, and our economy is doing fine, but our strongman is threatening the courts, the press and has signed executive orders that will destroy our environment and allow big banks and Wall Street virtual freedom to do what they want with no or little regard to the average citizen. We are headed toward anarchy, which is what Steve Bannon is proposed by gutting government. So if the strongman and Bannon continue on the current course we will reach a point where the checks and balances that have made our democracy work and be admired around the world will be crushed and most if not all the power will be in the small hands of our strongman. The immediate critical test is whether the strongman will be able to effectively stop or water down the investigation into his ties with the Russians. His first try was to fire Comey. The first counter against that should be an independent prosecutor named to keep the strongman from halting the investigation. If that is not accomplished, and accomplished soon, I’m afraid we are in for some serious troubling times as the strongman consolidates his growing power. If he can neutralize our justice system he is half-way to unchecked power. The last power grab would be to dissolve the legislative branch. The Rs, who are gleefully rampaging through bills that are putting in place conservative and far-right values that will diminish the average man’s rights while the strongman nods in agreement don’t understand they are just pawns in a gambit to concentrate full power in the executive branch. They are having fun now, but when the time is ripe, they will be gone in a flash and we will have our first full dictatorship. The only way to stop this madness is for us all in one strong voice demand that justice and truth be served. God help us.