Tuesday, August 28, 2007
No principles, and worse still, no balls
As has been pointed out repeatedly on this blog the opposition never misses and opportunity to miss and opportunity. The vote on the consitutional reforms proposed by President Chavez is the latest example of this.
If you've been listening to the opposition on this subject you hear not all that much on the actual proposed reforms themselves. Rather what you hear is that the reforms should be split up for purposes of voting. That is, rather than voting on the entire reform in block they should be able to vote on each individual article as they claim is their right under the constitution.
Ok, that can be a valid point and maybe they should be able to vote reform by reform, approving some and rejecting others, if that is what they want. But that presupposes something very fundamental - that there are some of these reforms which they would like to see enacted.
That is, while they clearly don't want the indefinite re-election clause to pass maybe they do want the 36 hour work week one to pass. Clearly they must want SOMETHING to pass. Otherwise why insist on voting clause by clause?
After all, if you really don't like any of these reforms it is easy to say this whole package should be voted down and if Chavez wants any reforms approved he should go back to the drawing boards and come up with something better. Quite frankly there isn't a single proposal here that I will miss if it isn't enacted. The 36 work week is an economic absurdity, as I have previously explained. Most of the other proposals are so opaque or ambiguious it is impossible for me to tell what they will actually mean - so they are no great loss. And the one proposal I could actually support, removing term limits, is made a non-starter by Chavez's idiotic - and undemocratic - proposal to lengthen presidential terms to 7 years.
So even to this pro-Chavez blogger it is all very clear what should be done - vote the whole thing, IN ITS ENTIRETY, down. There you go, nice and simple.
Yet apparently the opposition finds it not to be so simple. Therefore maybe our opposition friends who lurk here can tell us which of the proposed constitutional reforms they favor. Personally, I think they like the idea of multiple vice-presidents appointed by Chavez. Maybe they think Chavez will be generous and appoint an opposition to person to one - certainly that is something more than they could ever hope to get through actual voting. In any event, if our opposition friends come clean the comments section should be interesting.
Of course, there could be another interpretation of all this. Maybe they DON'T really support ANY of the proposed reforms but because they never have the balls to say what they really think to the Venezuelan people they don't have it in them to say the whole thing should be voted down. They lack the courage and principles to, for example, tell Venezuelans that a 36 hour week won't really make them any better off.
But of course standing on principle and possibly damaging their already meagre poll ratings is not something they have the intestinal fortitude to do. So they won't. They will hide behind silly, cowardly and pedantic demands to avoid the REAL discussion.
Once again the opposition has nothing to offer Venezuela. Venezuela needs to vote down these reforms that will clearly do more harm than good. And it will be up to clear thinking Chavistas to do it. Venezuela certainly can't count on the oppition to save the day. Those clowns can't even save themselves.
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If you've been listening to the opposition on this subject you hear not all that much on the actual proposed reforms themselves. Rather what you hear is that the reforms should be split up for purposes of voting. That is, rather than voting on the entire reform in block they should be able to vote on each individual article as they claim is their right under the constitution.
Ok, that can be a valid point and maybe they should be able to vote reform by reform, approving some and rejecting others, if that is what they want. But that presupposes something very fundamental - that there are some of these reforms which they would like to see enacted.
That is, while they clearly don't want the indefinite re-election clause to pass maybe they do want the 36 hour work week one to pass. Clearly they must want SOMETHING to pass. Otherwise why insist on voting clause by clause?
After all, if you really don't like any of these reforms it is easy to say this whole package should be voted down and if Chavez wants any reforms approved he should go back to the drawing boards and come up with something better. Quite frankly there isn't a single proposal here that I will miss if it isn't enacted. The 36 work week is an economic absurdity, as I have previously explained. Most of the other proposals are so opaque or ambiguious it is impossible for me to tell what they will actually mean - so they are no great loss. And the one proposal I could actually support, removing term limits, is made a non-starter by Chavez's idiotic - and undemocratic - proposal to lengthen presidential terms to 7 years.
So even to this pro-Chavez blogger it is all very clear what should be done - vote the whole thing, IN ITS ENTIRETY, down. There you go, nice and simple.
Yet apparently the opposition finds it not to be so simple. Therefore maybe our opposition friends who lurk here can tell us which of the proposed constitutional reforms they favor. Personally, I think they like the idea of multiple vice-presidents appointed by Chavez. Maybe they think Chavez will be generous and appoint an opposition to person to one - certainly that is something more than they could ever hope to get through actual voting. In any event, if our opposition friends come clean the comments section should be interesting.
Of course, there could be another interpretation of all this. Maybe they DON'T really support ANY of the proposed reforms but because they never have the balls to say what they really think to the Venezuelan people they don't have it in them to say the whole thing should be voted down. They lack the courage and principles to, for example, tell Venezuelans that a 36 hour week won't really make them any better off.
But of course standing on principle and possibly damaging their already meagre poll ratings is not something they have the intestinal fortitude to do. So they won't. They will hide behind silly, cowardly and pedantic demands to avoid the REAL discussion.
Once again the opposition has nothing to offer Venezuela. Venezuela needs to vote down these reforms that will clearly do more harm than good. And it will be up to clear thinking Chavistas to do it. Venezuela certainly can't count on the oppition to save the day. Those clowns can't even save themselves.
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