CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez won a major battle for socialist dictatorships this week. The Venezuelan legislature granted Chavez sweeping power to enact policy by decree for the next 18 months.

Sure, socialism is great, but dictatorship -- which is the power being granted to Chavez -- is not. And it is never, ever okay to justify dictatorship by claiming that you're only working for the greater good, just as it is never ever okay to rescind freedom of speech or the press under the guise that it is somehow "better" for the country. Taking away rights in the name of freedom is not only ethically wrong, but it means that there is no freedom. History has taught us that the "dictatorship of the proletariat" -- which is what Chavez has created with his new decree powers -- doesn't end at a socialist utopia; rather, it ends with a crazy dictator and lots of dead people.