Chavez

I'm probably the only American to admit this defeat was a bad thing. But I will continue to say that Chavez is a good thing for Venezuela and a good thing for the world. It's good to see someone with a popular socialist agenda. I believe he is a bit power hungry in the authoritarian sense, but his reforms have really changed Venezuela. This recent vote was for a couple of things, first and foremost being an elimination of term limits for the office Chavez holds. He lost that vote and it probably is a good thing for the democracy of Venezuela, but it doesn't prove, as U.S. media suggests, that Chavez is an unpopular dictator. He received nearly half of the vote, which was very close, and hardly a "mandate" for the dissenters. But I feel it's worth mentioning some of the things that Chavez is trying to do. Quoted from the article linked above:

Along with the controversial measures expanding his powers, his package also included popular moves -- especially among his poor support base -- to reduce the workday to six hours and give pensions to street vendors and housewives.

A six hour day would certainly help families, especially the poorer ones, and being that it's a socialist system, it wouldn't likely affect payout to those employees. Production might go down some, but given other studies probably not. Also pensions for street vendors and housewives is exactly the sort of reform that a socialist movement is able to accomplish and indeed is proof that Chavez' intent really is to take care of his people. Quite far from the evil reporting he receives in our press. Socialism is a utopia, and I believe Chavez understands this. I also believe, and I may be naive to think so, that Chavez isn't out for a dictator role. He idolizes Castro, but I don't feel it's because he wants control. I believe it is because he truly believes in the revolution that Castro and Che Guevara fought to restore Cubans with a way of life deserving of a people. I could be one hundred percent wrong, but the way I see it, Chavez really does want to make Venezuela a nation of people with shared resources. This anti-capitalism is scary to the U.S., but not because it threatens our capitalism, it threatens our production resources. Venezuelan oil is big on the money market. And many big oil men cash in on that commodity. Chavez' take on sharing profits of that resource and controlling it as a government resource and not a worldwide commodity does affect its availability and price. That's what I think everyone is afraid of. Not a strong dictatorship, but actually a strong Venezuela. It's in our imperialistic best interest to keep the third world down.