getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
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babyhueypnewton posted:when someone actually has political convictions instead of empty cynicism and self-hatred
for the record, i have strong convictions, i'm not cynical and i do not hate myself.
[account deactivated]
Cycloneboy
Cycloneboy
Unapologetic Opponent of Rape
Post rating:
-
self-loathing is a key attribute of the ideal revolutionary, since it means that, when put in a position of power, they will not view themselves as superior to others. hth
[account deactivated]
angelbutt_dollface
angelbutt_dollface
Post rating:
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yeah that's a pretty obvious falsehood
HenryKrinkle
HenryKrinkle
hi
Post rating:
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Ironicwarcriminal posted:
ggw
ggw
Post rating:
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Cycloneboy posted:self-loathing is a key attribute of the ideal revolutionary, since it means that, when put in a position of power, they will not view themselves as superior to others. hth
that's the sign of mental illness
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
~
tpaine posted:getfiscal doesn't hate himself lmao; getfiscal doesn't hate himself lmao.
i'm depressed and i got problems but i love myself. self-hug bro.
ggw
ggw
Post rating:
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good for you getfisky
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
~
Goethestein
Goethestein
Nippon
Post rating:
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"Like I said, party politics don't interest me, only my reality.
What can I tell you? Lots of political propaganda?
The level of resentment here of the lower classes toward anyone perceived as higher class, is absurd. Chavez has propagated a way of thinking that having money is bad, having your own business is bad, and having success in the sense of having people work for you, is bad. It's capitalist, it's bourgeois, oligarchy, pitiyanki (yankee pity) (I don't know what the fuck this is supposed to mean, but for the chavistas it's an insult).
What is good is working for the state. A good minimum salary. To be on a "mission." All subsized by the government. Everything regulated.
Would you vote for a president that mandates price through law? When you can't afford something, and he makes a law that says now the products cost X, and all of a sudden, you can afford it?
Chicken costs X, the French bread costs X, the coffee costs X, it can't cost any more.
Wonderful! How ingenious, this man does know how to govern, this president does have our interests in mind! Not like the opposition, which is white, which comes from a millionaire family, that has money and doesn't know what we go through. Yes, Chavez brought racism back to Venezuela, and anyone that says otherwise come here on bus or on the metro and you will see the looks you get. People have told me to go back to my country for being white and having straight black hair. I've lived in Venezuela my entire life, but "I have to go back to where I came from."
And from where do they get these prices? I don't know. From out of their asses. Because they don't take into account inflation and the country's expenses. So a company that raises chickens literally can't profit from selling them. It costs more to raise them, feed them, than to sell them at the price the government dictates. What happens? Bankrupt? And what happened to the employees that worked in this factory and farm? On the street.
Boom, now there are no more chickens. What does the government do? Subsidize them. Do you know where the chickens on the market today come from? From Brazil. The coffee? From Brazil. The meat? From Uruguay and Brazil. The milk? Colombia.
All subsized. And in the open air markets, where you have to wait in giant lines for government programs. That is PDVAL and Mercal. The two branches of the government that subsidize and sell food.
But what do the ignorant people see? (Ignorant because they ignore the reality of the situation). That the country's oligarchic companies stopped producing and selling food and Chavez came to the rescue. The government helped them. Now there is food.
In the meantime, the coffee, chicken, milk, oil, corn, and meat companies are all broken or in some horrible situation.
They don't produce. What a shame, that is a disgrace to the people. They are hoarding the country’s space and product! They are violating the people's sovereignty!
We must expropriate them, we most nationalize these companies and make them work!
Now they are producing milk, coffee, corn! You see! The governement works!
Yes, the government works! The expenses have been fixed, the factories produce!
Yes, all subsided. From the teat of oil. Meanwhile, Venezuela is bleeding. The oil isn't enough. PDVSA is in ruin.
But that is not what they announce on the national network, nor on the giant banners. No, the giant signs on the metro, on the street, high up on the buildings say, "1550% increase in sovereign milk production! Chavez, the heart of my homeland!" With a photo of Chavez hugging a women in the milk factory.
1550% increase in production. I'd love to see any company in the world, in the history of humanity that has had a production planner like Chavez's government. The world would be a utopia.
1550% in crease in production...yeah right. I can see it. I know how to filter what they present. I have common sense.
Compared with what?
Compared to the past three months, when by law they mandated a price on milk that made production cost prohibitive, and the factory operates at a loss, literally. The past three months where the production had to be reduced by 98%, or even by 100% depending on the industry, just to save the company. For the man who has spent 35 years of his life carrying this company on - he'll think what to do, how to save the fruit of his life, how to make it so his children inherit this.
But they expropriate it from him. Because it is an oligarchy, because it wasn't producing.
Chavez does think about the people.
He'll tell you during 8, 12, or even 16 hours of national network television.
All the while the teat of PDVSA, the teet of oil is drying up.
But that's not what they show.
They show you the inauguration of the new mission. The "Ribas" mission or some other crockery.
Now what about educating the people? Free education for everyone!
No, not free, better than that! They pay you!
The government pays you for studying!
Yes, you read it correctly. The missions pay.
To hell with studying, I'll say. And spend the money instead on drinking all weekend. Awesome.
Chavez does love me. He gave me food. And he gave me education, and to my kids, and to my wife, and to my uncle, aunt, and brother-in-law.
And he pays us all! What a great man.
And the teat of oil gets dryer and dryer.
PDVSA in the shitter. The country in ruin. Monthly inflation at 10%.
What I buy today, within 3 months I won't be able to afford.
Well, easy! Increase the minimum wage!
Chavez does love me! He's a super genius! Now my boss has to pay me more! Like the law says!
And the boss? Who pays him? The people that aren't buying anything? The country that can't produce?
After all, money is bad. To be a millionaire is bad. That fucking boss. He has too much money, Chavez has showed that to me during the last 10 years. I'm sure that he has enough to pay me my new minimum wage, and have enough to go on an imperial vacation. He's an imperialist. He's bourgeois. He's a bolibourgeois (again I have no idea what shitty type of insult this is, but here it is, they say it to you every time, in the street, on TV, in the state media).
Meanwhile, I'm here. I have my biweekly paycheck and my last one of the calm month, because Chavez gave me money from the missions and he got chicken, meat, rice.
Wouldn't you vote for him? If you don't have any type of political or economic education? You wouldn't vote for him? I would! I'm sure I would!
But I look farther than my nose. I see what is being left for my children. A shitheap. A tattered country that isn't going to be worth three shitheaps.
I congratulate them.
If you knew all that the state subsidizes. At any cost to our inflation and our currency. But the people don't know anything of this.
Things already cost a lot. Too many bolivars. 70,000 bolivars for 1 kilogram of ham? That's a lot. That number is very high. What a shame. Look at all those zeroes.
What to do? Well get rid of the last 3 zeroes!
How ingenious, how intelligent!
And even better, now the Bolivar is strong!
A strong Bolivar!
He's a genius. He's super intelligent. Do you see? Before it cost 70 thousand. Now only 70! What a marvelous president! He fixed everything!
I would vote for him too.
But I have common sense. I know where this is all going to stop. I know that when the oil's teet dries up, when PDVSA doesn't give any more, that's when the fall will come.
It's sad, but I feel I have to abandon ship.
If you have any question in particular, I'd love to answer it for you".
What can I tell you? Lots of political propaganda?
The level of resentment here of the lower classes toward anyone perceived as higher class, is absurd. Chavez has propagated a way of thinking that having money is bad, having your own business is bad, and having success in the sense of having people work for you, is bad. It's capitalist, it's bourgeois, oligarchy, pitiyanki (yankee pity) (I don't know what the fuck this is supposed to mean, but for the chavistas it's an insult).
What is good is working for the state. A good minimum salary. To be on a "mission." All subsized by the government. Everything regulated.
Would you vote for a president that mandates price through law? When you can't afford something, and he makes a law that says now the products cost X, and all of a sudden, you can afford it?
Chicken costs X, the French bread costs X, the coffee costs X, it can't cost any more.
Wonderful! How ingenious, this man does know how to govern, this president does have our interests in mind! Not like the opposition, which is white, which comes from a millionaire family, that has money and doesn't know what we go through. Yes, Chavez brought racism back to Venezuela, and anyone that says otherwise come here on bus or on the metro and you will see the looks you get. People have told me to go back to my country for being white and having straight black hair. I've lived in Venezuela my entire life, but "I have to go back to where I came from."
And from where do they get these prices? I don't know. From out of their asses. Because they don't take into account inflation and the country's expenses. So a company that raises chickens literally can't profit from selling them. It costs more to raise them, feed them, than to sell them at the price the government dictates. What happens? Bankrupt? And what happened to the employees that worked in this factory and farm? On the street.
Boom, now there are no more chickens. What does the government do? Subsidize them. Do you know where the chickens on the market today come from? From Brazil. The coffee? From Brazil. The meat? From Uruguay and Brazil. The milk? Colombia.
All subsized. And in the open air markets, where you have to wait in giant lines for government programs. That is PDVAL and Mercal. The two branches of the government that subsidize and sell food.
But what do the ignorant people see? (Ignorant because they ignore the reality of the situation). That the country's oligarchic companies stopped producing and selling food and Chavez came to the rescue. The government helped them. Now there is food.
In the meantime, the coffee, chicken, milk, oil, corn, and meat companies are all broken or in some horrible situation.
They don't produce. What a shame, that is a disgrace to the people. They are hoarding the country’s space and product! They are violating the people's sovereignty!
We must expropriate them, we most nationalize these companies and make them work!
Now they are producing milk, coffee, corn! You see! The governement works!
Yes, the government works! The expenses have been fixed, the factories produce!
Yes, all subsided. From the teat of oil. Meanwhile, Venezuela is bleeding. The oil isn't enough. PDVSA is in ruin.
But that is not what they announce on the national network, nor on the giant banners. No, the giant signs on the metro, on the street, high up on the buildings say, "1550% increase in sovereign milk production! Chavez, the heart of my homeland!" With a photo of Chavez hugging a women in the milk factory.
1550% increase in production. I'd love to see any company in the world, in the history of humanity that has had a production planner like Chavez's government. The world would be a utopia.
1550% in crease in production...yeah right. I can see it. I know how to filter what they present. I have common sense.
Compared with what?
Compared to the past three months, when by law they mandated a price on milk that made production cost prohibitive, and the factory operates at a loss, literally. The past three months where the production had to be reduced by 98%, or even by 100% depending on the industry, just to save the company. For the man who has spent 35 years of his life carrying this company on - he'll think what to do, how to save the fruit of his life, how to make it so his children inherit this.
But they expropriate it from him. Because it is an oligarchy, because it wasn't producing.
Chavez does think about the people.
He'll tell you during 8, 12, or even 16 hours of national network television.
All the while the teat of PDVSA, the teet of oil is drying up.
But that's not what they show.
They show you the inauguration of the new mission. The "Ribas" mission or some other crockery.
Now what about educating the people? Free education for everyone!
No, not free, better than that! They pay you!
The government pays you for studying!
Yes, you read it correctly. The missions pay.
To hell with studying, I'll say. And spend the money instead on drinking all weekend. Awesome.
Chavez does love me. He gave me food. And he gave me education, and to my kids, and to my wife, and to my uncle, aunt, and brother-in-law.
And he pays us all! What a great man.
And the teat of oil gets dryer and dryer.
PDVSA in the shitter. The country in ruin. Monthly inflation at 10%.
What I buy today, within 3 months I won't be able to afford.
Well, easy! Increase the minimum wage!
Chavez does love me! He's a super genius! Now my boss has to pay me more! Like the law says!
And the boss? Who pays him? The people that aren't buying anything? The country that can't produce?
After all, money is bad. To be a millionaire is bad. That fucking boss. He has too much money, Chavez has showed that to me during the last 10 years. I'm sure that he has enough to pay me my new minimum wage, and have enough to go on an imperial vacation. He's an imperialist. He's bourgeois. He's a bolibourgeois (again I have no idea what shitty type of insult this is, but here it is, they say it to you every time, in the street, on TV, in the state media).
Meanwhile, I'm here. I have my biweekly paycheck and my last one of the calm month, because Chavez gave me money from the missions and he got chicken, meat, rice.
Wouldn't you vote for him? If you don't have any type of political or economic education? You wouldn't vote for him? I would! I'm sure I would!
But I look farther than my nose. I see what is being left for my children. A shitheap. A tattered country that isn't going to be worth three shitheaps.
I congratulate them.
If you knew all that the state subsidizes. At any cost to our inflation and our currency. But the people don't know anything of this.
Things already cost a lot. Too many bolivars. 70,000 bolivars for 1 kilogram of ham? That's a lot. That number is very high. What a shame. Look at all those zeroes.
What to do? Well get rid of the last 3 zeroes!
How ingenious, how intelligent!
And even better, now the Bolivar is strong!
A strong Bolivar!
He's a genius. He's super intelligent. Do you see? Before it cost 70 thousand. Now only 70! What a marvelous president! He fixed everything!
I would vote for him too.
But I have common sense. I know where this is all going to stop. I know that when the oil's teet dries up, when PDVSA doesn't give any more, that's when the fall will come.
It's sad, but I feel I have to abandon ship.
If you have any question in particular, I'd love to answer it for you".
AmericanNazbro
AmericanNazbro
Post rating:
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that dude going to be in for a rude awakening if he's complaining about 'only prospects of minimum wage' if he's truly going to emigrate
cleanhands
cleanhands
Post rating:
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it just goes to show that if you feed, house, educate and heal your people theyre just gonna spend all their free time thinking of reasons to be ungrateful, better to just enslave them and bask in their appreciation
gyrofry
gyrofry
Kurdt
Post rating:
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babyhueypnewton posted:Ironicwarcriminal posted:What would you say fuels your zeal BHPN
obviously i come across as zealous because why would i come here to talk about my life, my friends, my sex life, my job, and the dumb chit chat that makes up most of the noise on this forum? im the incarnation of my ideology taken to the extreme because at one time thats what lf was, and it was the initial shock of an overwhelming consensus of revolutionary leftism which was more informed, more correct, and more interesting than the rest of the internet (esp D&D) which jolted my ideology into change. it's too bad lf doesnt exist anymore and no one reads this forum (and the other one is shut off from the public), because lf was a great service and changed the culture of SA (and arguably the entire internet). i linger around here because i still feel grateful for that, even though lf is gone for good and this place is only a shadow.
and thats my summary of lf
it seems the trajectory of LF is not entirely unlike the history of the Left
littlegreenpills
littlegreenpills
Poronto
Post rating:
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you know saudi arabia subsidizes the hell out of everything for their population and they're turning out okay. I bet venezuela would be avoiding all this naughty inflation and foreign-reserve depletion if they imported a bunch of immigrants to do all the actual work
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
+
Chavez wins re-election in Venezuela, defeating grandson of Holocaust survivors
October 9, 2012
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) -- Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Iran, won re-election, defeating Henrique Capriles Radonski, the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
Chavez took 54 percent of the vote to Radonski's 45 percent in the Oct. 7 poll. His term will end in 2019, extending his rule over the OPEC member state to two decades.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed its concern over Chavez's re-election, citing the fact that Venezuela has Shahab 3 long-range missile launching platforms on the country’s Caribbean coast aimed at Florida.
“Hugo Chavez’s triumph can only strengthen Iran’s political and military penetration of Latin America,“ Dr. Shimon Samuels, director of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JTA on Tuesday.
"Six more years of the Caracas-Tehran axis could be as perilous as an Afghanistan with oil,” he added.
Argentina´s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, used Twitter to congratulate her regional ally.
"Your victory is also ours. Go Hugo,“ she tweeted.
Sergio Widder, the Wiesenthal Center’s director for Latin America, told JTA that “Chavez reportedly facilitated the recent dialogue between Argentina and Iran, clearly aimed at closing both the AMIA Jewish Center bombing investigation and Buenos Aires’ demand for extradition of the Iranians complicit in that atrocity.”
Since taking power in 1999, Chavez has become a global “anti-imperialism” fighter and a close ally of leaders from Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and Belarus. Chavez, a former soldier, has described Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as “genocide” and called Zionism racism.
Last July, Venezuela was accepted as a full member of the Mercosur regional free trade and political group, and will have increased influence in a bloc that also includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Mercosur's members all recognize a Palestinian state.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/09/3108856/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-wins-re-election-defeating-grandson-of-holocaust-survivors
October 9, 2012
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) -- Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, an ally of Iran, won re-election, defeating Henrique Capriles Radonski, the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
Chavez took 54 percent of the vote to Radonski's 45 percent in the Oct. 7 poll. His term will end in 2019, extending his rule over the OPEC member state to two decades.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed its concern over Chavez's re-election, citing the fact that Venezuela has Shahab 3 long-range missile launching platforms on the country’s Caribbean coast aimed at Florida.
“Hugo Chavez’s triumph can only strengthen Iran’s political and military penetration of Latin America,“ Dr. Shimon Samuels, director of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JTA on Tuesday.
"Six more years of the Caracas-Tehran axis could be as perilous as an Afghanistan with oil,” he added.
Argentina´s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, used Twitter to congratulate her regional ally.
"Your victory is also ours. Go Hugo,“ she tweeted.
Sergio Widder, the Wiesenthal Center’s director for Latin America, told JTA that “Chavez reportedly facilitated the recent dialogue between Argentina and Iran, clearly aimed at closing both the AMIA Jewish Center bombing investigation and Buenos Aires’ demand for extradition of the Iranians complicit in that atrocity.”
Since taking power in 1999, Chavez has become a global “anti-imperialism” fighter and a close ally of leaders from Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and Belarus. Chavez, a former soldier, has described Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as “genocide” and called Zionism racism.
Last July, Venezuela was accepted as a full member of the Mercosur regional free trade and political group, and will have increased influence in a bloc that also includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Mercosur's members all recognize a Palestinian state.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/10/09/3108856/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-wins-re-election-defeating-grandson-of-holocaust-survivors
hey
hey
Post rating:
+
chavez is literally hitler
ilmdge
ilmdge
Online
Post rating:
~
"How can I not support Assad. He's the legitimate leader … We will continue in our support and advocate peace," Chávez told reporters at the presidential palace in Miraflores.
He also lamented the death of his friend, former Libyan leader Gaddafi. "The way he died was a barbarity. Gaddafi was assassinated almost on TV." He said the former Libyan leader had sent him a last message, in which he compared himself to Che Guevara: "I shall die like Che – I will be a martyr."
He also lamented the death of his friend, former Libyan leader Gaddafi. "The way he died was a barbarity. Gaddafi was assassinated almost on TV." He said the former Libyan leader had sent him a last message, in which he compared himself to Che Guevara: "I shall die like Che – I will be a martyr."
bonclay
bonclay
Harry the Hat
Post rating:
+
This capriles versus chavez debate has me thinking. Is there no room for a radical moderate center here? Maybe what is needed for venezuela is not fiery rhetoric and class warfare, but moderate technocrats, jobs, industry, and smart investments.
aerdil
aerdil
Post rating:
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sorry chavezailures but foreignaffairs has got his number this issue w/ two different articles. cronyism cronyism cronyism cronyism which doesnt exist under capitalism
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/interactive-the-twisted-economics-of-twenty-first-century-socialism-chavez-venezuela?cid=nlc-this_week_on_foreignaffairs_co-101112-interactive_the_twisted_econom_2-101112#
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/interactive-the-twisted-economics-of-twenty-first-century-socialism-chavez-venezuela?cid=nlc-this_week_on_foreignaffairs_co-101112-interactive_the_twisted_econom_2-101112#
He may declare that he wants to "pulverize" capitalism, but the president's stewardship of the Venezuelan economy seems to have helped private firms more than workers. During his tenure, the country's stock market has skyrocketed while real wages have collapsed. The result is a private sector that is small, highly unproductive, increasingly state-dependent, and yet very profitable.
getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
Post rating:
+
Chavez’s Win Proves ‘Elected Autocrat’ Isn’t an Oxymoron
Hugo Chavez is something of a challenge to the worldview of many rich-country observers. His election victory this week has given him, health permitting, a new six-year term as Venezuela’s president. He’s the leading elected autocrat in Latin America and maybe the world.
“Elected autocrat” is a confusing category. According to the model that prevailed for decades after 1945, there are really just two kinds of state: free and unfree. Democracy, good. Autocracy, bad. Chavez represents a third way, one that might be catching on. (Think of the former Soviet Union and the Arab Spring.) He teaches us an important lesson: Democracy isn’t enough.
The reaction to his latest election victory is revealing. Some, a small minority to be sure, celebrate it as democracy at work. Chavez won, in this view, because his policies are popular and rightly so: See how he has driven down poverty, using the country’s oil wealth to give the poor jobs, health care and houses. It’s democratic socialism in action.
Most others see it differently. They’ve noticed the expansion of state control, the systematic erosion of the private sphere, the erasure of checks and balances, the cult of personality, the clientelism, corruption, collapsing productivity and stupendous waste. They see an epic failure. What’s telling, though, is their reluctance to admit this could have happened in a “real” democracy.
Free Vote
The vote was free but not fair -- that’s the cliche. It’s an evasion. Venezuela’s election wasn’t rigged. Nobody disputes that the country wanted Chavez. Nobody questions his winning by 55 percent to 44 percent. Venezuela is indeed democracy at work -- at work, yet gone tragically wrong.
Of course, Chavez used the power of the state to buy votes and put the opposition at a disadvantage. Yes, he exploited those advantages to an unusual degree, and could do it because he’d already ground down many of the country’s constitutional protections. But this line of argument is awkwardly far- reaching. If governments in “real democracies” don’t buy votes with public money or exploit the other electoral advantages of incumbency, then the number of such states shrinks to the point of meaninglessness.
Look at the money spent on the U.S. presidential campaigns, for instance. A month from now, ask the losing side whether that vote was “fair” as well as free.
It’s better to admit that Venezuela is a democracy -- that Chavez stands re-elected by the will of the people -- but that democracy is not enough. This isn’t just semantics. Chavez makes it easier to see how democracies can be corrupted, how important it is to arrest that decay early on, and that illiberal democracies like Venezuela are not necessarily anomalies or exceptions.
Chavez has exploited two advantages -- his own political genius and the windfall of Venezuelan oil. He came to power in 1998, before oil prices surged, and at the beginning was a constitutional reformer rather than an economic radical. He pressed for a referendum to create a Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution. The new rules shifted powers from Congress to the presidency, establishing the template of chavismo.
Sometimes he overreached. There were setbacks, but the basic pattern was established: Polarize opinion, marginalize the opposition, weaken his own accountability (except to the electorate as a whole) and gather the levers of power in the presidency.
Piggybank Democracy
When the oil money began to flow, Chavez expanded social spending massively, and succeeded in reducing poverty. He also spent the money shrewdly to maximize political advantage. Increasingly, the government disbursed funds at his own discretion, through numerous visible and invisible channels, without oversight by any competing center of power.
Chavez has made social spending a gift of the president. Lack of oversight also made it easier to co-opt leaders of the country’s diminishing private sector -- competitive bidding is not a hallmark of Venezuela’s public procurement -- further increasing the presidency’s grip on the country’s resources, and further undermining the political opposition.
Despite all that, that opposition managed something of a revival in this week’s election. More unified than usual, and under the competent leadership of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the anti-Chavez coalition mounted a serious challenge. It’s a tribute to the damage that Chavez has inflicted on the country.
Oil notwithstanding, the costs of Chavez’s policies aren’t subtle. The country’s infrastructure, starved of funds and mismanaged by the president’s cronies, is falling apart. Revenue from oil, a sector run as a presidential fiefdom, is far less than it should be thanks to egregious inefficiency. Power failures plague a country rich in energy. The rule of law is failing and crime is rampant. Foreign investors steer clear, and talented Venezuelans choose between a future on Chavez’s terms or emigration.
Yet Venezuela is a democracy and Chavez is still popular. Indeed, democracy has worked better for him than outright autocracy, which would have aligned domestic and foreign opposition more effectively. Illiberal democracies, under the right circumstances, can be stronger than outright tyrannies. They lend themselves better to divide and rule.
The lessons of Chavez are worth pondering everywhere. Democracy isn’t enough. Illiberal democracy is no oxymoron. Political competition, dispersal of power and commitment to limited government are as important to a country’s political and economic well-being as the vote.
(Clive Crook is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View. Subscribe to receive a daily e-mail highlighting new View editorials, columns and op-ed articles.
Today’s highlights: the editors on the future of affirmative action and on combating North African extremism; Margaret Carlson on Maine’s crazy Senate race; Jonathan Orszag and Peter Orszag on how Jack Welch could help improve jobs data; Camille Paglia on Picasso’s pre-cubist brothel painting.
To contact the writer of this article: Clive Crook at clive.crook@gmail.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this article: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-09/chavez-s-win-proves-elected-autocrat-isn-t-an-oxymoron.html
Hugo Chavez is something of a challenge to the worldview of many rich-country observers. His election victory this week has given him, health permitting, a new six-year term as Venezuela’s president. He’s the leading elected autocrat in Latin America and maybe the world.
“Elected autocrat” is a confusing category. According to the model that prevailed for decades after 1945, there are really just two kinds of state: free and unfree. Democracy, good. Autocracy, bad. Chavez represents a third way, one that might be catching on. (Think of the former Soviet Union and the Arab Spring.) He teaches us an important lesson: Democracy isn’t enough.
The reaction to his latest election victory is revealing. Some, a small minority to be sure, celebrate it as democracy at work. Chavez won, in this view, because his policies are popular and rightly so: See how he has driven down poverty, using the country’s oil wealth to give the poor jobs, health care and houses. It’s democratic socialism in action.
Most others see it differently. They’ve noticed the expansion of state control, the systematic erosion of the private sphere, the erasure of checks and balances, the cult of personality, the clientelism, corruption, collapsing productivity and stupendous waste. They see an epic failure. What’s telling, though, is their reluctance to admit this could have happened in a “real” democracy.
Free Vote
The vote was free but not fair -- that’s the cliche. It’s an evasion. Venezuela’s election wasn’t rigged. Nobody disputes that the country wanted Chavez. Nobody questions his winning by 55 percent to 44 percent. Venezuela is indeed democracy at work -- at work, yet gone tragically wrong.
Of course, Chavez used the power of the state to buy votes and put the opposition at a disadvantage. Yes, he exploited those advantages to an unusual degree, and could do it because he’d already ground down many of the country’s constitutional protections. But this line of argument is awkwardly far- reaching. If governments in “real democracies” don’t buy votes with public money or exploit the other electoral advantages of incumbency, then the number of such states shrinks to the point of meaninglessness.
Look at the money spent on the U.S. presidential campaigns, for instance. A month from now, ask the losing side whether that vote was “fair” as well as free.
It’s better to admit that Venezuela is a democracy -- that Chavez stands re-elected by the will of the people -- but that democracy is not enough. This isn’t just semantics. Chavez makes it easier to see how democracies can be corrupted, how important it is to arrest that decay early on, and that illiberal democracies like Venezuela are not necessarily anomalies or exceptions.
Chavez has exploited two advantages -- his own political genius and the windfall of Venezuelan oil. He came to power in 1998, before oil prices surged, and at the beginning was a constitutional reformer rather than an economic radical. He pressed for a referendum to create a Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution. The new rules shifted powers from Congress to the presidency, establishing the template of chavismo.
Sometimes he overreached. There were setbacks, but the basic pattern was established: Polarize opinion, marginalize the opposition, weaken his own accountability (except to the electorate as a whole) and gather the levers of power in the presidency.
Piggybank Democracy
When the oil money began to flow, Chavez expanded social spending massively, and succeeded in reducing poverty. He also spent the money shrewdly to maximize political advantage. Increasingly, the government disbursed funds at his own discretion, through numerous visible and invisible channels, without oversight by any competing center of power.
Chavez has made social spending a gift of the president. Lack of oversight also made it easier to co-opt leaders of the country’s diminishing private sector -- competitive bidding is not a hallmark of Venezuela’s public procurement -- further increasing the presidency’s grip on the country’s resources, and further undermining the political opposition.
Despite all that, that opposition managed something of a revival in this week’s election. More unified than usual, and under the competent leadership of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the anti-Chavez coalition mounted a serious challenge. It’s a tribute to the damage that Chavez has inflicted on the country.
Oil notwithstanding, the costs of Chavez’s policies aren’t subtle. The country’s infrastructure, starved of funds and mismanaged by the president’s cronies, is falling apart. Revenue from oil, a sector run as a presidential fiefdom, is far less than it should be thanks to egregious inefficiency. Power failures plague a country rich in energy. The rule of law is failing and crime is rampant. Foreign investors steer clear, and talented Venezuelans choose between a future on Chavez’s terms or emigration.
Yet Venezuela is a democracy and Chavez is still popular. Indeed, democracy has worked better for him than outright autocracy, which would have aligned domestic and foreign opposition more effectively. Illiberal democracies, under the right circumstances, can be stronger than outright tyrannies. They lend themselves better to divide and rule.
The lessons of Chavez are worth pondering everywhere. Democracy isn’t enough. Illiberal democracy is no oxymoron. Political competition, dispersal of power and commitment to limited government are as important to a country’s political and economic well-being as the vote.
(Clive Crook is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)
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Today’s highlights: the editors on the future of affirmative action and on combating North African extremism; Margaret Carlson on Maine’s crazy Senate race; Jonathan Orszag and Peter Orszag on how Jack Welch could help improve jobs data; Camille Paglia on Picasso’s pre-cubist brothel painting.
To contact the writer of this article: Clive Crook at clive.crook@gmail.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this article: James Gibney at jgibney5@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-09/chavez-s-win-proves-elected-autocrat-isn-t-an-oxymoron.html
Maoist_Third_World_Sex_Tourist
Maoist_Third_World_Sex_Tourist
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getfiscal posted:epic fail
HenryKrinkle
HenryKrinkle
hi
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i personally want to read Camille Paglia on Picasso’s pre-cubist brothel painting
ilmdge
ilmdge
Online
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dont worry yall the NYT got his back
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opinion/why-chavez-was-re-elected.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/opinion/why-chavez-was-re-elected.html