There’s been a lot of hullabaloo over Pat Robertson’s recent remark that the US ought to assassinate Hugo Chavez. Being a big fan of Chavez, a real social democrat of a sort we simply don’t have in the US, and whose safety from the typical assassination-based foreign policy the US uses in the Third World has been a source of concern to me, I was outraged as well.
Not the least offensive thing in Robertson’s nasty little rant was his assertion that the coup attempt against Chavez was popular. It was in fact not, and it was the popular rejection of the poll that put Chavez back in power. Chavez’ approval rating is some forty points higher than our president’s approval rating. (I’m not holding my breath on Robertson backing a coup in the US, though Robertson did famously suggest using nuclear weapons against our own government in 2003.)
After watching for a couple of days, however, I’m now convinced that rather than try to get Robertson off the TV, as some have suggested, we try to get him more airtime. As far as Venezuela is concerned, Robertson’s remarks have had a number of positive effects. Firstly, Chavez’ already stratospheric approval rating has surged even higher in the face of Robertson’s remarks. Secondly, Robertson gives credence to Chavez’ assertion that there are influential people in the US who want to stop his peaceful revolution by assassinating him. And thirdly, the awkward and probably insincere denials Robertson has forced the US government to make will make it much harder for a CIA hit to take place.
While it is probably politically necessary, as a matter of tactics, to make a big stink about Robertson, the fact of the matter is that he and other American fascists are so repugnant to common decency that they are an albatross around the neck of the Republican party. As long as the GOP welcomes — or tacitly accepts — the kooks, nutballs, and thugs of the extreme theocratic right, their support among the majority will steadily erode.
And forewarned, the forces of progress — like President Chavez — have a better chance of surviving in the face of the current neo-fascist regime in Washington.
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If you, like me, are an admirer of President Chavez, or if you just deplore Pat Robertson’s remarks and Condi Rice’s very similar sabre-rattling towards Venezuela, you might consider expressing those opinions to the Venezuelan ambassador. Let him know — and the CIA spooks who presumably read all of his mail in Washington — that decent, law-abiding Americans do not stand with Pat Robertson.
Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera
1099 30th Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
(For those not familiar with Latin American names, the ambassador should be addressed as Ambassador Alvarez, not Ambassador Herrera, when using the short form of his name.)
I’d recommend writing to the US State Department as well, but we all know they don’t care about popular opinion.
