Chavez's Contradictions
Insults and Their Consequences
Caracas, Venezuela

Yesterday, while hanging out near the National Assembly, I got into an interesting discussion with some Chavistas. They wanted to know my opinions. I wanted to know theirs.

I did not really learn anything I hadn't already learned or shared in some way or another with you all, but we discussed an interesting question about the cancelled show I mentioned in my last Venezuela politics post. The opposition holds that the show was cancelled because the host was rabidly anti-Chavez.

If the law of Venezuela is that you can't insult elected leaders, why does Chavez get to insult Bush? Where is the line? Is Chavez above the law?

Some would argue that Bush was never really elected, but that's another discussion. What's important is that everyone in politics needs to take a pause and start acting civil. As Katrina vanden Heuvel asks in a recent Nation piece, Don't We Need a New Political Language? Bush is not Hitler. Neither is Chavez.

Bush needs to stop patronizing Venezuela about "freedom of expression" and Chavez needs to stop calling Bush a donkey.