Chavez Loses
Why would a dictator seek to rid himself of term limits on his own stay in office?
The question answers itself. Dictators don’t want any formal constraints on their power. Power is something they always want more of.
Down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has been illustrating this with ever more brazen usurpations. His latest: An attempted overhaul of the Venezuelan constitution by cobbling together 69 amendments, including one to scrap presidential term limits. All in a single referendum. Yes or No, people.
Over the last nine years of his rule, Chavez never lost an election. He lost this one.
Such power grabs are nothing new. In the ancient Roman Republic, magistrates typically served for only a single year, then stepped down. When the republic died with the rise of men like Sulla, Caesar, and Augustus, that was also the end of term limits. Caesar was assassinated after several years as dictator; his successor, Augustus, ruled as an imperial trinity of tribune, censor, and consul for decades.
Thousands of years later, it’s still not easy keeping politicians from serving for life. The current couple heading up Argentina have found a clever way around their country’s term limits. Robert Mugabe, ruler of Zimbabwe, overturned his country’s term limits, too, so he could dictate for going on 28 years now.
Guys like Augustus and Mugabe and Chavez like to use the trappings of democracy. They’d like voters to play along.
Voters don’t have to.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
