Monday, December 03, 2007
A Tale of two Nations (and their recent elections)
This weekend voters went to the polls in both Venezuela and Russia. While neither election directly involved the immediate political status of the nations' charismatic leaders Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, the outcomes spoke of their continued power regionally and in the world.
Chavez is portrayed (somewhat accurately) by TeamBush as a pro-Castro Commie who may threaten American energy supplies, as Venezuela is our third largest supplier of petroleum. Its an open secret that Bush and Company supported, and may have even financed and orchestrated, the short-lived coup against Chavez. And he indeed does consider himself a fellow traveller with Castro. Most of the reforms in this referendum vote would have solidified his power in building his 21st century Socialism project. And while I generally like Chavez and can understand his policies, which have had mixed success but have managed to reduce Venezuelan poverty from 49 to 30% in recent years, I really have problems with leaders who propose legislation making them in effect 'President for Life." That situation always devolves into problems and before you know it "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
But a funny thing happened on the way to that lifetime job appointment--Chavez's reforms were defeated by a razor-thin margin, 49-51%. He's still president until 2013 and has substantial majority support in the legislature, so don't cry for him, Venezuela. But despite hysteria about impending unfairness coming from TeamBush and an election boycott called by some opposition parties, the Chavista measures were defeated in what was by all accounts a pretty fair election.
{Quick sidebar: I just don't get groups who boycott elections. I can be sympathetic to the idea that one doesn't want to participate in an election that appears to be rigged, but it always struck me that one way of supporting the opposition's claims of fraud would be for exit polls monitored by international observers that would attest to the discrepancy between what actually happened and what the ruling party may claim. Maybe its just me, but remember that Hitler actually did win election to the Reichstag initially, in large part because the Social Democrats sat out the election to protest his Nazi party's thuggery--and soon the SDs next address ended up being Dachau. But its a moot point anyway, since in this case the 'strongman' lost.}
Of course Vladimir Putin didn't leave anything to chance in Russia's Duma elections, where his United Russia party's overwhelming victory was seen as a referendum on Putin himself and his ability to remain deeply involved at the top of Russia's political game after his term as President expires early next year. UR won 64% of the seats; the next highest vote total was taken by the Communists who won 11%.
Putin (one time pal, now scorned lover of GW "I call him Vlad'" Bush), has managed during his tenure to crush all but token 'acceptable' opposition by government decree, shutting down free media and NGOs across the nation, and even resorting to jailing (Yukos chief Khodorkovsky) or killing political (Litvenenko) and media (Politkovskaya) enemies.
OK, alleged killings since no charges have ever been brought against Putin or his allies in these convenient deaths, nor many others. And I guess its only alleged voter fraud, too, since OSCE monitors were only allowed a token group to police the whole vast nation, as most of their colleagues had trouble getting visas from the Kremlin (oops!).
Still there has been enough word leaking out regarding the corruption. Most effected was the pro-Western party led by chess champ Garry Kasparov (who was, by the way, jailed for five days on Nov 24). Their small rallies were broken up by police, and their fliers and materials were alternately banned, stolen, or ripped down across Russia. NPR had reports yesterday of patients in hospitals and psych wards being forced to vote UR via absentee ballot or face having their meds withheld. Likewise, doctors, lawyers and other government employees were made to vote absentee at work by handing their ballots in to their supervisors who could then 'monitor' their selections.
Ah, democracy. Turns out the Commie strongman did the right thing and the plain ol' former KGB strongman made a complete mockery of the process. But then again that's not too surprising. Putin plays political hardball like an MLB team stocked with batting champions and Cy Young award winners. By comparison even the most Machiavellian power mongers of TeamBush (the likes of Cheney, Perle, and Rumsfeld) seem like a sandlot, pick-up T-Ball league using a bent, dusty hubcap for second base.
This weekend voters went to the polls in both Venezuela and Russia. While neither election directly involved the immediate political status of the nations' charismatic leaders Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin, the outcomes spoke of their continued power regionally and in the world.
Chavez is portrayed (somewhat accurately) by TeamBush as a pro-Castro Commie who may threaten American energy supplies, as Venezuela is our third largest supplier of petroleum. Its an open secret that Bush and Company supported, and may have even financed and orchestrated, the short-lived coup against Chavez. And he indeed does consider himself a fellow traveller with Castro. Most of the reforms in this referendum vote would have solidified his power in building his 21st century Socialism project. And while I generally like Chavez and can understand his policies, which have had mixed success but have managed to reduce Venezuelan poverty from 49 to 30% in recent years, I really have problems with leaders who propose legislation making them in effect 'President for Life." That situation always devolves into problems and before you know it "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
But a funny thing happened on the way to that lifetime job appointment--Chavez's reforms were defeated by a razor-thin margin, 49-51%. He's still president until 2013 and has substantial majority support in the legislature, so don't cry for him, Venezuela. But despite hysteria about impending unfairness coming from TeamBush and an election boycott called by some opposition parties, the Chavista measures were defeated in what was by all accounts a pretty fair election.
{Quick sidebar: I just don't get groups who boycott elections. I can be sympathetic to the idea that one doesn't want to participate in an election that appears to be rigged, but it always struck me that one way of supporting the opposition's claims of fraud would be for exit polls monitored by international observers that would attest to the discrepancy between what actually happened and what the ruling party may claim. Maybe its just me, but remember that Hitler actually did win election to the Reichstag initially, in large part because the Social Democrats sat out the election to protest his Nazi party's thuggery--and soon the SDs next address ended up being Dachau. But its a moot point anyway, since in this case the 'strongman' lost.}
Of course Vladimir Putin didn't leave anything to chance in Russia's Duma elections, where his United Russia party's overwhelming victory was seen as a referendum on Putin himself and his ability to remain deeply involved at the top of Russia's political game after his term as President expires early next year. UR won 64% of the seats; the next highest vote total was taken by the Communists who won 11%.
Putin (one time pal, now scorned lover of GW "I call him Vlad'" Bush), has managed during his tenure to crush all but token 'acceptable' opposition by government decree, shutting down free media and NGOs across the nation, and even resorting to jailing (Yukos chief Khodorkovsky) or killing political (Litvenenko) and media (Politkovskaya) enemies.
OK, alleged killings since no charges have ever been brought against Putin or his allies in these convenient deaths, nor many others. And I guess its only alleged voter fraud, too, since OSCE monitors were only allowed a token group to police the whole vast nation, as most of their colleagues had trouble getting visas from the Kremlin (oops!).
Still there has been enough word leaking out regarding the corruption. Most effected was the pro-Western party led by chess champ Garry Kasparov (who was, by the way, jailed for five days on Nov 24). Their small rallies were broken up by police, and their fliers and materials were alternately banned, stolen, or ripped down across Russia. NPR had reports yesterday of patients in hospitals and psych wards being forced to vote UR via absentee ballot or face having their meds withheld. Likewise, doctors, lawyers and other government employees were made to vote absentee at work by handing their ballots in to their supervisors who could then 'monitor' their selections.
Ah, democracy. Turns out the Commie strongman did the right thing and the plain ol' former KGB strongman made a complete mockery of the process. But then again that's not too surprising. Putin plays political hardball like an MLB team stocked with batting champions and Cy Young award winners. By comparison even the most Machiavellian power mongers of TeamBush (the likes of Cheney, Perle, and Rumsfeld) seem like a sandlot, pick-up T-Ball league using a bent, dusty hubcap for second base.
Labels: Chavez, Elections, Putin
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