Don't cry for Chavez

Venezuela's president Chavez is America's poster boy to hate. Voters rejected by a very narrow margin his referendum to change Venezuela's constitution. You could hear the sounds of glee and joy in the US press and 'he got his just deserts' in the corridors of power and the endless silliness babbled by spin doctors.
If you listened to NPR's gal in Caracas you would have heard weak-tea reporting on the referendum which had more than a clause for a no-term limit on running for the presidency. The referendum had some 40-odd items for the voters to consider, which would shake the pillars of the old society. A 6-hour work day, equal rights for blacks, Indians, and gays and lesbians and the transgendered, not to speak of full equality of women and provisions for subsidies for a better family life, health care, the care of children, so on and on and on. No such matters as these were deemed unimportant, for perish the thought such subversive planks like these would set the average American to think--'I'm living in a nation which God gave to the world as a beacon on hill, and we've nothing comparable as to what Chavez is proposing. And why is that?' Thinking is the last thing the powers that be and the feckless American media would want to talk about. Thinking is dangerous.
Another thing: Mr.Chavez is a pragmatist; he has accepted defeat this time, but will nevertheless press on his mission to transform Venezuela in a more equitable society, and what's more his petro dollars give him the power to do so. There's something else which America's corporate media has failed to point out. Mr. Chavez believes in democracy, and he has bowed to the popular will. Thus, there's no need for this sense of triumphalism at his set back at the referendum; no need to shed crocodile tears for him.
As he said, he's nerves of steel and will press on. He fears no one and certainly not the United States which is dependent on his oil.