I am starting to miss Anonymous. He was obnoxious, abrasive, and arrogant, but I am now realizing that this blog is lesser sans his commentaries.
But anyway, great news from Venezuela! It looks like we just might have Hugo Chávez to kick around for a while more. And I'll admit that I am in fact generally opposed to term limits. What have they ever gotten the United States? Eisenhower and Reagan were unlikely to have run again for health reasons, and a third Clinton term would have spared us ... you know. All the stuff.
Of course, Hugo isn't Ike, Ron, or Bill. And there are circumstances under which term limits might make sense, especially in countries with histories of patronage politics. But still. In addition, the Bolivarian republic placed term limits on all elected offices, which is why Venezuelans voted on the following somewhat turgid question to change five different constitutional articles:
Do you approve the amendment of articles 160, 162, 174, 192 and 230 of the Constitution of the Republic, as approved by the National Assembly, that increases the political rights of the people by allowing any citizen holding elected office to be nominated as candidate for the same office for the constitutionally-established period of time, depending upon his or her possible election, exclusively by popular vote?
I like the “increases the political rights of the people” part. Clever framing. And, well, true.
In short, as unenthused as I am with President Chávez, I can't view the outcome of this election as some sort of great loss for Venezuelan democracy.
Plus, I'd bet against his victory in the next election.
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