I nearly jumped with glee when I saw that lawmaker Pedro Carreno was quoted in the media. He’s always dependable for a good laugh. In this case, he doesn’t disappoint.
First, the quote.
“For the year 2007, the year of the consolidation of the revolution, where our leader and compatriot President Chavez has informed us of a series of decisions which will be implemented, three of them necessary and useful for the normal and harmonious functioning of the State, and for the consolidation of the bolivarian revolution, in that sense the MVR [political party] made the decision to prepare a structure in such a way to hurry those events…[Those who question a constitutional reform eliminating presidential terms limits] want to manipulate and show that indefinite re-election is antidemocratic.”
Translating the revolutionary jargon is sometimes quite trying. It feels like translating Chinese under Mao. Because the Bolivarians generally lack an ideology which binds their ideas together, they end up sounding like caricatures of Karl Marx. My favorite little idea from this gem is “a series of decisions which will be implemented, three of them necessary and useful…” What about the rest?
Even though Winston Churchill was right when he said that democracy may suck, but it’s still the best system around, it seems that elections sometimes also suck. The only problem with elections is ignorance. Capitalism, for instance, works best when resources are pretty evenly distributed to begin with. It seems that elections also work best when education is evenly distributed. As Carreno always illustrates, Venezuelans have consistenly elected incompetent, if comical leaders.
If term limits are lifted, Chavez will likely remain in power as long as he can convince his supporters that prosperity is around the corner. And that’s not democracy. Democracy is a government which represents THE PEOPLE. Because no one government can’t do this entirely, new leaders are elected. If a leader is competent, he is usually able to bring about positive change in two terms. In three or more terms, the fish starts to stink. Those who don’t consider Chavez their supreme leader also deserve representation.
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