[marron]

If you have an Allende who won’t go, sometimes Pinochet is necessary.

On the other hand, sometimes your military dictator turns out to be a Chavez. His military background was a big part of the reason Venezuelans supported him, they saw him as someone who would get things done. Their memory of military dictatorships from the dim past was of a kind of 1950s Golden Era. A lot of people longed for the return of that era believe it or not.

What they got was a corrupt communist moron. Its a crap shoot.

[DesertRhino]

A dictator will always be despotic. They will always crush dissent. The very fact that they seize power through arms means they cannot win in an election. Since they cannot win an election, they must suppress dissent.
They must justify the repression, so they work hard to convince the populace of being surrounded by enemies.
If there are no enemies, why the repression?

This explains the US government and all moslem governments.
Enemies everywhere for us, and the eternal Zionist threat for the moslems.
The ONLY justification for seizing power is if the ballot box is gone.
It this is the case, the ones seizing power must hold an election very quickly to confirm they are not another usurper.

[posterchild]

Pinochet, Attaturk, Chiang Kai Shek,...but one never knows how it will unfold.

[353FMG]

The American people should be careful what they wish for.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

We’ve got a corrupt, communist moron Traitor in Chief now, so we don’t have to worry about getting a lesser Marxist like Chavez or Maduro.

[Nowhere Man]

If you have an Allende who won’t go, sometimes Pinochet is necessary.

On the other hand, sometimes your military dictator turns out to be a Chavez. His military background was a big part of the reason Venezuelans supported him, they saw him as someone who would get things done. Their memory of military dictatorships from the dim past was of a kind of 1950s Golden Era. A lot of people longed for the return of that era believe it or not.

What they got was a corrupt communist moron. Its a crap shoot.

I made similar points too where there are times I think we do need a Pinochet or Franco to fix things with the intent to return us to a more Constitutional based system. We might have to endure a period of time that would be comparable to Reconstruction in the South just after the Civil War. The Civil War ended in 1865 but Reconstruction lasted in some States until around 1877/78 or so. Even so, like you said, this could backfire where we could end up with a punk akin to a Castro or Chavez. The downside is all other options are looking poor indeed.