Home > Venezuela’s true patriots ... unlike the cowards who stayed home and griped!

Venezuela’s true patriots ... unlike the cowards who stayed home and griped!

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 6 December 2005
4 comments

Edito Elections-Elected South/Latin America Mary MacElveen

by Mary MacElveen

With the outcome of the Venezuelan elections now decided President Chavez’ MVR party now holds a convincing majority. No matter what the fevered opposition says, it is still a majority since those who did in fact go to the polls in torrential rains decided which direction Venezuela must democratically take.

MVR won 114 out of the 167 seats and this boils down to 68% ... it must mean that Chavez is doing something right if he gained such a majority to push through further reforms.

As reported elsewhere: “Many voting centers had to open late, though, because citizens who were asked to staff the centers did not show up, particularly in upper middle class neighborhoods, where the opposition parties that called for a boycott, are especially strong.”

I find this interesting for many reasons...

If the opposition feels the country is going in the wrong direction, they should not boycott an election. Quite simply, they should show up en masse ... staying away from a polling station that’s kept open late only shows cowardice on the part of Chavez’ opposition.

If as reported this boycott was strong, those who chose to join the stay-away failed in their mission. It also showed that boycotting the election was weak. If those in upper middle class neighborhoods felt left out of President Chavez’ people-oriented government, where the focus is on the poor of the nation, my message to them is: How do you think the poor of the United States feels when our government cares more for the rich?

Here in the United States, many did show up to the polls who wanted to see a change of course within this country ... but due to voter fraud, or being turned away from the polls, we have those that are friendly to President Chavez’ opposition in power. At least those who wanted to see a change of course showed up here as opposed to the opposition in Venezuela.

It almost appears that President Chavez’ opposition threw a hissy fit ... as if saying: “I am not getting my way so I’ll throw a temper tantrum”

Maria Corina Machado. an outspoken force against many of President Chavez’ policies, said “from a mulit-party parliament we pass to a single party parliament that does not represent the broad sectors of the population. Today, a National Assembly is born that is wounded in its legitimacy.”

If Maria Corina is that upset, she should have told her opposition NGO Sumate to show up and not to boycott this election. Those that did show up legitimized the election and the assembly by casting their votes instead of staying home. No one turned them away or purged their names off voter registration roles. There have been many provable reports where the US Republicans did just that here in the United States.

As we all know, her friend Bush is the head of that party.

* Now, Maria Corina can see exactly how it feels living in the minority ... perhaps that is her just reward and the opposition’s just reward for their sheer stupidity and arrogance.

Right now, many like myself, are living in the minority here in the United States under the rule of her friend George W. Bush. Bush and his supporters in our senate and House of Representatives act like totalitarian rulers instead of elected officials.

Oops, I keep forgetting the Supreme Court installed Bush back in 2000.

Many like me feel shut out of our political process, but the big difference here is that we say to our supporters: “SHOW UP to vote and work towards voter reform in this country.”

* In the United States, voter reform means getting the big money out of our political system and to do away with computerized voting machines. Personally, I would like to take a base ball bat to every single one of them.

If Maria Corina reads this column, I want to express to her that her friend Bush denied help coming from Venezuela to help the citizens of here in the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and ask her: How she feels about that? If the opposition to President Chavez agrees with the denial of this humanitarian aid, then they deserved to lose.

Just last night, I was reading an AP article asking how we will pay for the rebuilding of Hurricane Katrina. Let me remind Maria Corina, we would not even be having this debate had her friend George W. Bush not spent billions upon billions for an illegal war.

Rest assured, Maria Corina those who were the recipients of discounted home heating oil here in the United States are thrilled with President Chavez, because it shows he cared and still cares for them unlike your friend Bush.

What I find amusing is that one of our minority leaders went behind Bush’s back to get this done ... his name is US Congressman William Delahunt ... he really deserves a pat on the back for that one.

In closing, those who went to the polls in Venezuela yesterday, and exercised their right to vote, were truly the ones looking out for the best interest of Venezuela.

They are Venezuela’s true patriots ... unlike the cowards who just stayed home and griped.

What they said through that vote was: we want to continue President Chavez’ people-oriented policies ... instead of going back into the misery of the last forty years of governmental malfeasance and corruption that characterized Maria Corina’s soul-mates in Venezuelan politics and their puppeteers in Washington D.C..

Mary MacElveen
mary@vheadline.com

http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47281

Forum posts

  • Perhaps what the elite and those who aspire
    to join their ranks are lacking besides a sense
    of democracy and shared social responsibility
    are some of the following personal short coming;

    The Seven Deadly Sins.

    Wealth without Work.

    Pleasure without Conscience.

    Science without Humanity.

    Knowledge without Character.

    Politics without Principle.

    Commerce without Morality.

    Worship without Sacrifice.

    Gandhiji.

  • Like in the Ukraine those people have been payed by the Americans. Why don’t you just close this American crime place called embassy. Venezuela and all Latin American countries don’t need American murderer in their country.

  • I don’t think Bush will be happy about that. He can’t steal the oil now. Darn the luck.

  • It must be remembered that pulling back "opposition" candidates four days before the election and declaring a boycott answers certain needs: 1. When you know you are going to lose, removing looser candidates and declaring a boycott disguises the unpopularity of the so called "opposition" 2. Knowing that voting will be low (Part of the problem is that many candidates were unknown—Chavez has to make real his promise to have communities name their own candidates—part is because of voter exhaustion. The last election was August 7!) a boycott allows the “opposition” to declare victory. They can now pretend that all the non-voters answered their call. 3. This strategy was used by (no, it can’t be…) the US in Nicaragua, the Philippines, Panama and other "uncooperative" countries to weaken political parties and to impose US approved Candidates. According to "Diario Vea" the preferred US candidate for Venezuela is none other than Maria Corina Machado... surprise, surprise!