Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Bitten in the ass by his own cowardice
Reading through the comments section I am seeing that the revisionist re-writing of events has already begun. "People didn't understand the proposals", we are told. "Chavez didn't have the chance to fully explain them", say others. "The opposition lies carried the day", many seem to agree.
Really? Lets step back and make sure we accurately recall what happened.
First, if the proposals were "rushed" who should we blame for that? The A.N. could have taken more time to debate them. They could have had more public sessions. Yet they didn't.
Further, Chavez didn't even have to submit the proposals to the A.N. as quickly as he did. He could have waited, discussed them publically first, made sure people knew what they were, and made any modifications the general public seemed to really want. Yet he didn't.
That these proposals were so rushed wasn't an accident nor something that was unavoidable. It was a choice born of the same arrogance that we have been discussing recently.
Second, Chavez refused to defend his proposals publically. Lets recall, the opposition was crying out for a public debate. Yet Chavez refused.
Think about this. Instead of being ghettoized on State media, as some offer by way of excuse, he would have had an audience of millions and millions of Venezuelans watching a historic debate. Right then and there he could have called the opposition on all their lies and distortions. But he didn't.
And while we are at it lets put another nail in the coffin of this revisionism. THIS WAS KNOWN AT THE TIME. Remember this little post calling Chavez a coward for not debating? Read the comments and you will see plenty of excuses - chief among them that sure winners don't debate (well Chavez now joins Lopez-Obredor in seeing how that turns out)and that formal debates are some kind of anachronism from "liberal", as opposed to "revolutionary", democracy.
Yet we know hear the same people saying "people weren't educated enough about the proposals" as if Chavez himself wasn't to blame for that.
Sorry, but that just ain't so. The sad reality is arrogance and cowardice led the leadership of Chavismo to refuse to defend its ideas publically in front of their adversaries. That is something that should never happen, especially among people who claim to be revolutionaries.
So please, put down the revisionism and pick up the mirror. The first step to fixing what needs to be fixed is HONESTLY recognizing the problems. Because either Chavismo purges itself of this cowardice and arrogance or Venezuela will wind up purging itself of Chavismo.
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Really? Lets step back and make sure we accurately recall what happened.
First, if the proposals were "rushed" who should we blame for that? The A.N. could have taken more time to debate them. They could have had more public sessions. Yet they didn't.
Further, Chavez didn't even have to submit the proposals to the A.N. as quickly as he did. He could have waited, discussed them publically first, made sure people knew what they were, and made any modifications the general public seemed to really want. Yet he didn't.
That these proposals were so rushed wasn't an accident nor something that was unavoidable. It was a choice born of the same arrogance that we have been discussing recently.
Second, Chavez refused to defend his proposals publically. Lets recall, the opposition was crying out for a public debate. Yet Chavez refused.
Think about this. Instead of being ghettoized on State media, as some offer by way of excuse, he would have had an audience of millions and millions of Venezuelans watching a historic debate. Right then and there he could have called the opposition on all their lies and distortions. But he didn't.
And while we are at it lets put another nail in the coffin of this revisionism. THIS WAS KNOWN AT THE TIME. Remember this little post calling Chavez a coward for not debating? Read the comments and you will see plenty of excuses - chief among them that sure winners don't debate (well Chavez now joins Lopez-Obredor in seeing how that turns out)and that formal debates are some kind of anachronism from "liberal", as opposed to "revolutionary", democracy.
Yet we know hear the same people saying "people weren't educated enough about the proposals" as if Chavez himself wasn't to blame for that.
Sorry, but that just ain't so. The sad reality is arrogance and cowardice led the leadership of Chavismo to refuse to defend its ideas publically in front of their adversaries. That is something that should never happen, especially among people who claim to be revolutionaries.
So please, put down the revisionism and pick up the mirror. The first step to fixing what needs to be fixed is HONESTLY recognizing the problems. Because either Chavismo purges itself of this cowardice and arrogance or Venezuela will wind up purging itself of Chavismo.
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