Reply #82: But your point was a good one, that the Chavistas PUT IT TO A VOTE of the entire country,

[Peace Patriot]

and when their 69 amendments were defeated, by a very close margin, after a hard-fought campaign, both Chavez and those who supported the amendments did not contest it, as they had a right to, but accepted the narrow defeat.

When they then put the term limit on a ballot by itself, the anti-Chavez screamers then complained that Chavez had NOT accepted the previous results and, damn him, just kept trying. And that's what happens in a DEMOCRACY, which anti-Chavistas don't seem to understand at all. Things get proposed. They may get defeated, but if the margin is a narrow one, the proponents have every right to try again. Conditions change. In this case, it was a stand-alone issue, and a much clearer referendum on the peoples' view of term limits. They voted them all down--even those for rightwing governors. Such is life in a DEMOCRACY. You win some, you lose some, you keep trying.

The rightwing here, and there, wanted to limit the leftist democracy revolution that Chavez is leading and that the vast majority of Venezuelans support. If the rightwing in this country had been able to, they would have rammed through a term limit on FDR. They could not get away with that, so they did it in the 1950s, as an effort to prevent any "New Deal" from ever happening here again, and to begin to undo the "New Deal" that FDR had led (which they are close to accomplishing). The rich have their private clubs and their money and their power. The poor have time. Given enough time, democracy--if it is in working order--will produce a fairer, more just country, and will disempower or balance out corrupt or overly-powerful, entrenched interests, as the will of the majority. Term limits are designed to overrule the will of the majority. That is why our Founders opposed them, and did not place term limits on any federal officials, president or congress. The Republicans overruled the Founders, and have since been aiming at a corpo/fascist state in which ordinary people have no say. First it was with term limits. Then it was with corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies and filthy, FILTHY money, and scads of it, in every campaign. And lately they have added 'TRADE SECRET' code voting machines, with the code owned and controlled by a handful of rightwing corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls--and have gotten such a lock on power that we can't break it.

They wanted to do the same to Venezuela--to gain global corporate predator control of the oil--but the people of Venezuela have outsmarted them at every turn, including holding elections that are far, FAR more transparent than our own.

We need to learn from them.