Following Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ “gracious” (by his weird standards) concession speech following the Referendum, the Renaissance Man told everyone who would listen to just wait. His pattern is to start out calmly and then, after a slow burn, explode. Just the most recent example, of course, was when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe V. removed President Chavez from the negotiations for a humanitarian accord regarding the hostages held by the FARC. Pres. Chavez, at first, accepted the decision with magnanimity and as the sovereign decision of a sovereign state.
Later in the week (and really up until this minute) he went off the deep end.
As usual, the Renaissance Man was right about what would happen this time. Graciousness has been replaced by vulgarity, rage and threats. On Wednesday of this week, just two days after the concession speech, Chavez attacked the winning “No” side as having had a “shit” victory (it went on like that, but the Renaissance Man sees no need to dirty this blog with additional vulgarities).
Yesterday, Chavez attacked his supporters for not going out and voting. He attacked those who voted “No” as “little Yankees” and castigated his followers for not getting enough “Si” votes out to the polls. He attacked the voters of Caracas saying that they owed him a debt, which they had not repaid by supporting his constitutional reform. He then threatened “We’ll see if the debt is repaid or not”.
The Renaissance Man has a few short points to make here. First, the complete contempt in which Chavez holds not only his opponents but their democratic victory in the referendum is clear and troubling. It is evident that those who regard his acceptance of the results of the referendum as a manifestation of his essentially democratic nature are seriously mistaken. In fact, he clearly holds no respect for democracy, its norms, the right of citizens to disagree with their leaders, or for democratic outcomes that run counter to his wishes.
Secondly, Chavez’ remarks reconfirm his abysmally shallow understanding of democratic, republican and even socialist theories of government. In democratic and republican theory, the people NEVER “owe” any sort of debt, personally, to their leaders. In a republic, the leader is simply a citizen representative and in no democratic or republic style system can an elected leader claim any personal right to be supported by the people. On the contrary, he or she owes their position to the people. The debt, if there is one, runs the other way.
Even socialist theory, which is based upon equality of all, would deny that any leader can be owed a personal debt by his/her subjects. Of course, socialist theory frequently collapses, in practice, into statism and dictatorship.
Chavez reveals, in these comments, his true nature. He is neither republican, nor democrat, nor socialist. He regards the presidency of Venezuela as his personal fiefdom, and his so-called “populism” is merely a convenient tool to buttress what is essentially a dictatorship in waiting.
Thirdly, despite the shrewdness that some people attribute to him, the Renaissance Man is concerned that there is a certain instability about Chavez. The way he ratchets up his anger, for example, is not normal. In some reports, following his Tuesday attack on his opponents, it was posited that he was drunk. After looking at the video, who knows? The Renaissance Man ventures no opinion on Chavez’ sobriety, much less on whether or not an alcohol problem would be better or worse than a mental condition.
All that can be said is that Chavez is dangerous to the world, the region and to Venezuela.
Later in the week (and really up until this minute) he went off the deep end.
As usual, the Renaissance Man was right about what would happen this time. Graciousness has been replaced by vulgarity, rage and threats. On Wednesday of this week, just two days after the concession speech, Chavez attacked the winning “No” side as having had a “shit” victory (it went on like that, but the Renaissance Man sees no need to dirty this blog with additional vulgarities).
Yesterday, Chavez attacked his supporters for not going out and voting. He attacked those who voted “No” as “little Yankees” and castigated his followers for not getting enough “Si” votes out to the polls. He attacked the voters of Caracas saying that they owed him a debt, which they had not repaid by supporting his constitutional reform. He then threatened “We’ll see if the debt is repaid or not”.
The Renaissance Man has a few short points to make here. First, the complete contempt in which Chavez holds not only his opponents but their democratic victory in the referendum is clear and troubling. It is evident that those who regard his acceptance of the results of the referendum as a manifestation of his essentially democratic nature are seriously mistaken. In fact, he clearly holds no respect for democracy, its norms, the right of citizens to disagree with their leaders, or for democratic outcomes that run counter to his wishes.
Secondly, Chavez’ remarks reconfirm his abysmally shallow understanding of democratic, republican and even socialist theories of government. In democratic and republican theory, the people NEVER “owe” any sort of debt, personally, to their leaders. In a republic, the leader is simply a citizen representative and in no democratic or republic style system can an elected leader claim any personal right to be supported by the people. On the contrary, he or she owes their position to the people. The debt, if there is one, runs the other way.
Even socialist theory, which is based upon equality of all, would deny that any leader can be owed a personal debt by his/her subjects. Of course, socialist theory frequently collapses, in practice, into statism and dictatorship.
Chavez reveals, in these comments, his true nature. He is neither republican, nor democrat, nor socialist. He regards the presidency of Venezuela as his personal fiefdom, and his so-called “populism” is merely a convenient tool to buttress what is essentially a dictatorship in waiting.
Thirdly, despite the shrewdness that some people attribute to him, the Renaissance Man is concerned that there is a certain instability about Chavez. The way he ratchets up his anger, for example, is not normal. In some reports, following his Tuesday attack on his opponents, it was posited that he was drunk. After looking at the video, who knows? The Renaissance Man ventures no opinion on Chavez’ sobriety, much less on whether or not an alcohol problem would be better or worse than a mental condition.
All that can be said is that Chavez is dangerous to the world, the region and to Venezuela.
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