# Venezuela's Political Situation **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818 "2002-12-06T00:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/161 "2002-12-16T15:55:22Z")
Demagoguery and divisiveness may get a politician an electoral win but may also make the country ungovernable if the losers feel they are being abused. Having a majority of the votes does not justify doing anything you want. Chávez is seeking confrontation and is using demagoguery to get the support of the masses but the way things are going the result may be that in the end everybody loses including the masses. Majority support does not mean it is the intelligent thing to do. many countries have plunged into disaster when the majority were fanatical or blind enough. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/162 "2002-12-16T16:03:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Considerations of whether or not he’s “ruining the country” aside, if the people of Venezuela aren’t happy with the way their elected government officials are running the country, they do live in a federal republic, same as the U.S., and if an American president begins to be perceived by some Americans as “ruining the country”, we don’t deal with it by organizing coups and national strikes and trying to oust him. \*\* No, the President’s opponents pressure him to resign, as happened with Nixon (who did so) and Clinton (who did not). Of course, as **Mighty Girl** points out, Venezuela does not have the additional pressure tactic of the threat of impeachment available. Venezuelans are using the only tactics they have available. As I mentioned previously, Chavez’s own constitution enshrines the “right to rebellion” against an “anti-democratic” regime. Chavez obviously had this clause inserted in order to legitimize _ex post facto_ his own previous coup attempt against a democratically elected government. But as Chavez’s “Bolivarian Republic” is much more coercive in its tactics than the government Chavez rebelled against, this clause can easily be used against him. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/163 "2002-12-16T18:18:26Z")
Okay, that makes sense, thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ZooMetropolis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@ZooMetropolis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZooMetropolis)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/164 "2002-12-16T19:05:19Z")
This is from the BBC: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2580443.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2580443.stm) > [@](#): > > **Venezuela army told to obey president.** > President Chavez tells the army to ignore judges and court rulings and to follow nobody’s orders but his own. If this isn’t a “dictator like” abuse of power, I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![ZooMetropolis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@ZooMetropolis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZooMetropolis)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/165 "2002-12-16T19:05:19Z")
This is from the BBC: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2580443.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2580443.stm) > [@](#): > > **Venezuela army told to obey president.** > President Chavez tells the army to ignore judges and court rulings and to follow nobody’s orders but his own. If this isn’t a “dictator like” abuse of power, I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818/166 "2002-12-16T21:09:34Z")
I’ve been reading updates on the situation in Venezuela at [El Sur](http://elsur.blogspot.com/). My co-worker has lived in Caracas for several years (and his wife is Venezuelan) and just got back from there last week- he says that it’s a accurate summary of the events going on there. El Sur doesn’t use terms like “comrade” or “imperialist lackey pig-dogs” so I don’t think it will meet Chumpsky’s standards for an unbiased news source. When not running his [country’s economy into the ground](http://www.globalaging.org/pension/world/venezuelashrinks.htm), Chavez likes to spend his time writing sympathetic letters to [Carlos the Jackal](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/intl/article/0,9171,1107990510-25003,00.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/venezuelas-political-situation/140818.md?page=8)