One must wonder these days if the Democrats are wrapping themselves around Chicagoland rough and tumble politics, or are they wrapping themselves around the politics of hyper-inflation experiencing third world thugocracies.

In Chicagoland politics, like third world thugocracies, opponents of government get gunned down, thrown in jail, threatened by the powers of government, etc. We saw this happen a few months ago when a bank executive wrote a letter to the editor in his local newspaper criticizing TARP. Barney Frank demanded he appear before Congress to answer questions unless he recanted his position.

We see it again today, very starkly,

Roll Call reports Senator Max Baucus, the Democrat leading the fight for socialized healthcare, is threatening businessmen that appearing with Republicans will be harmful to their business interests.

Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called a last-minute, pre-emptive strike on Wednesday with a group of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting with Senate Republicans set for Thursday.

Russell Sullivan, the top staffer on Finance, and Jon Selib, Baucus’ chief of staff, met with a bloc of more than 20 contract lobbyists, including several former Baucus aides.

“They said, ‘Republicans are having this meeting and you need to let all of your clients know if they have someone there, that will be viewed as a hostile act,’” said a Democratic lobbyist who attended the meeting.

“Going to the Republican meeting will say, ‘I’m interested in working with Republicans to stop health care reform,’” the lobbyist added.

People are not explicitly being denied their right to peacefully assembly and petition government. They are simply made to fear that should they exercise their constitutional rights, harm will come to them, their families, or their businesses.

It is the Chicago way. And these same people will not now go on the record because they fear the power of Congressmen who do not respect differing opinions.

But it is not just the Chicago way. It is also the way of the third world thugocracy. And what makes me think this is more third world thugocracy that your basic Chicago cement shoes, is that in thugocracies, in addition to rounding up political opponents, throwing them in jail, harming businesses, or putting bullets in heads via hired hit men, the thugocracy also seeks to deny the opposition basic services — something that does not happen in Chicago.

In the summer of 2008, Congressman Thad McCotter took to the well of the United States House of Representatives to ask tough questions of Nancy Pelosi. Her response? Order the C-SPAN cameras turned off.

Later that summer, when Republicans took to the floor of the House of Representatives to demand a vote on off shore drilling, what did the Democrats do? They turned off the power, locked the doors, and dared the GOP to do anything. But the GOP stayed and resisted. The GOP scored big points.

The same is happening with Democrats outside Washington. In New York State, when Republicans took over the State Senate this past week, Democrats turned out the power, cut the internet lines, shut down the phone lines, and fled.

Robert Mugabe would be proud.

This should also be a sign of just how manifestly wrong the Democrats are and where the Democrats are heading. In third world thugocracies the governments typically set the countries on a path toward hyperinflation after bullying opponents, whistle blowers, and businesses into silence.

Think about it — if we add healthcare to Obama’s already prolific spending, we’ll each be taking whole uncut sheets of greenbacks straight off the U.S. Mint’s printer to pay for a burger and fries at McDonalds.

The only way to address this is for businessmen to overcome their fears and speak out. But until they do, we are all going to have to be strong and unite in opposition to the thugocracy. And we must because we can see in the third world what we will otherwise become.