Monday, December 3, 2007

President For Life

How often recently have you heard from the media that Hugo Chavez was trying with the latest referendum (which he lost) to become President-for-Life, to entrench dictatorship - instead of dropping Presidential term limits from the Constitution? It would seem to follow that prior to the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, the US was a dictatorship.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

FDR sure did look like a dictator to the same people who are calling Hugo Chavez a dictator.

It is interesting how you basically have to have American Democracy to not be called a totalitarian state these days.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

I am not surprised that Chavez's initiative lost. He is very popular in Venezuela, much to the annoyance of many in the US. But he clearly was going beyond what people reelected him for with a lot of his latest stuff. Yes, he was moving in the direction of authoritarianism, and well beyond the levels that FDR imposed, except at the worst moments of WW II, and despite Chavez's cheap rhetoric, Venezuela is not involved in any such situation.

Barkley

Anonymous said...

Correct Barkley, Venezuela is not involved in a WWII but a struggle against neoliberalism that's been gaining global proportion. Chavez may have won more by losing, particularly if opposition forces become overly emboldened.

J.Goodwin said...

American "democracy" you mean. The business/political party hegemony is as dictatorial as any corrupt head of state at this point, and the self-selection process eliminates the prospect of any truly representative candidate successfully standing in the final election in any case.