The way we were: Caracas was, Kiev is

A faithful reader sent me this post from another blog, Power Line.

Basically the writer of this blog reflects on the elation of the crowds in Kiev, thinking that they might overthrow what has become an odious system to them. The reader who sent me that link writes: "I recognize it only because I have read your blog, Daniel." Well, I am not sure my blog was that eloquent but I chose to reply in public because the reader raised, without knowing perhaps, an excellent question: whatever happened to those elated crowds that were seen in Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo and even Barquisimeto?

Indeed two years ago we thought that we would get rid of the regime that is morally corrupting our country to a level that we could not imagine. And we had already quite a lot of moral corruption going on! But the difference between Ukraine and Venezuela is that in Venezuela we had a ruthless thug in office sitting on a pot of gold. Two years of maneuvering, of cheating, of vote buying, eventually paid off. And the happy crowds are gone, with a disparities country where on the eve of December first there is very little Christmas cheer in the air. My building used to be all decked up by December first. This is going the third year in a row where little or no Christmas decoration will be set up. The amazing thing is that the supporters of the morally corrupt leadership are not very cheerful themselves. They "won" everything but one would not know from their faces. Victory while cheating does not taste as good, just as on occasion the doped athletes can be detected just by the face they make when they win their race.