In God We Trust

Venezuela's Dictatorship Built on a 47 Percent Dependency Formula

 

IBDEditorials.com

Big Government: Mitt Romney was blasted last month for warning about the intractable nature of chronic government dependency. But Venezuela's election Sunday, which Hugo Chavez won handily, shows how right he was.

Against all odds in a normal democracy, Chavez won re-election to a fourth term against a strong opponent Sunday. The margin was 55% to 44%, putting Chavez in line to become the third longest ruler in the history of the hemisphere, outmatched only by Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner and Cuba's Fidel Castro, if he survives the six-year term.

It was a curious thing, given that Chavez is a colossal failure as leader — his radical Marxist program serving up shortages, crime, incompetence and corruption, and his alliances with the world's rogue states and terrorists making Venezuela a pariah state.

It was even sadder because his rival, Henrique Capriles Radonski was a credible, fresh-faced challenger who ran a disciplined, sharp campaign, vowing to align Venezuela along the path of neighbors such as Brazil.

Yet Chavez's 11-point margin was higher than any poll or exit poll, and while it's true he tilted the playing field by dominating the airwaves, flinging cash for votes and playing dirty tricks with the ballot itself — placing Capriles' picture by a party not affiliated with his political alliance — it wasn't quite outright fraud, as far as is known. Tellingly, Capriles' team knew all this and still thought it could win.

It didn't. What brought Chavez victory was an unexpectedly high 80% turnout, which amounted to favors called in because of his culture of dependency, making it easy for Chavista redshirts to round up votes from both the slums and from Venezuela's government workers. That's about 43% of the electorate, his base, that'll vote for him no matter what.

Which brings up Mitt Romney's description of the toxic effect of government dependency on democracy.

"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney told a Florida fundraiser last May. "There are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

That describes well not just why Chavez won, but why it's all but impossible to dislodge him once he's in.

Chavez is entering his fourth term — tired, cancer-stricken, in power 14 years, and vowing to accelerate his socialism even more.

And Venezuelans may never be able to get rid of him, short of death, or maybe a Pinochet-like military takeover followed by free-market reform, if they are lucky.

They can't win against, in Chavez's case, raising government spending 23% — on everything from hiring bureaucrats to promises of new homes, TVs and even washer-dryers.

With a system like this, with the vast majority of the population dependent on government for all their needs — and not called on to make anything of themselves — the culture of dependency and the culture of a dictator form an unbreakable bond.

That's a lesson for America — the Chavez lesson.