Chavez's New Brand of Populism

[Larkspur]

http://www.counterpunch.org/araneta08252004.html

To denigrate him, the enemies of Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, call him a populist ... as if that were the greatest insult in the glossary of political science.

Frankly, there is nothing inherently diabolic about populism, if you ask me.

But, since a handful of false democrats and tin pan dictators have misused the concept, it now connotes a devious setting out to curry favor among the masses, inevitably resulting in bad governance.

In its true sense, populism is not the road to perdition; in fact, it can fill that yawning abyss between promises and performance, that is why it is so politically alluring. Obviously, it requires oodles of money, government funds equitably disbursed and distributed; so if a leader is secretly avaricious, downright spineless and standing on gelatinous economic ground, s/he had better not even mention the P word.

The redoubtable Hugo Chavez is a populist of the good kind and fortunately, he can very well afford to be one. For the first time, the Venezuelan government has full control of its oil industry, the 5th largest in the world.
<SNIP>

Oh! Oh! I can hear my senator, "Joemomentum" Lieberman, griding his teeth over another case of populist.

[ladjf]

1. Chavez is showing us the way out of our nightmare.

[oscar111]

2. populist defined , as by academia? wish best possible definition

i have seen it used so many ways. What is it? how differ from other isms?

[ret5hd]

3. best possible definition?

of the people
for the people
by the people

in the true sense of "the people", not the bastardized version that we use that really means:

of the powerful
for the money
by the corporation

[ladjf]

4. I'm not concerned about the precise definition of populist.

What I see is the only major leader in the world that is successfully standing up to the U.S. global cartel of big business. They have tried to assassinate him and kick him out via referendum. Both failed miserably. Unfortunately, part of his apparent success might stem from the fact that BushCo is pretty busy with Iraq and the elections.
If Bush wins in Nov., it will be a disaster for the world, including Chavez.

Chavez has connected with the low income masses. They love and support him. He has significantly improved their quality of life. He is sharing the oil revenues with them. Our rich companies could do the same and still have plenty of money left over to buy mansions,airplanes and big cars.

[Larkspur]

5. Bush would still be busy in Iraq if he wins in November

and the neocons have their sites on Iran. I think that they have given up on Venezuela for now and the near future. The referendum was a smashing success for Chavez and his political organization. If Bush Co. tries anything, it would be an assasination-on-the-cheap, but the business types here, are starting to see Chavez as a leader who can provide stability, and stability is very important to business. I just hope that Chavez doesn't become corrupt.