President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_constitution
Yeah I just read that but until its official I wouldn't be too happy. Since the election committee is staffed with people he put there.
Isn't it a little funny that the guy who basically wrote the constitution in 1999 now wants to rewrite it?
Even the people of his country knew this was not the right path, how perfect democracy can be sometimes
It's almost irrelevant. He lost only by a trifle number of votes on a package of changes that was horrifically awful. Next year he'll propose another package that is only slightly less terrible and it will pass. The year after, he will have the legal authority to impose the rest of the changes. As Thomas Jefferson said “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.†Venezuela is on the road to ruin, led by an ill-informed populace. With Chavez now in charge of educating and indoctrinating the nations youth, the process is effectively irreversible.
Hear, Hear! A Constitution protects the natural rights of individuals. If it is constructed properly. Fortunately, the Founders understood Natural Law. That our rights come from our creator and our humanity. These days, people have been led to believe that the government gives us our rights. On the contrary, the Constitution was written to restrain the power of Government. Those founders, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison et al were very smart and learned men. @Will, I believe Benjamin Franklin said, (paraphrasing) "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep debating what they are going to eat. Liberty is a well-armed sheep taking exception to the outcome of the vote."