Sí son ratas
Our ruling clique has given up trying to be loved, or liked, or esteemed, or approved of, or even just minimally respected...they're quite happy to be loathed, so long as they survive.
When rats feel trapped, they dig. The reflex survival reaction all rodents have is to try to dig their way out of trouble.
Chavismo’s like that, too.
I’m not going all Hans Landa on you, comparing chavista voters to rats. I’m really not. Nobody has been lied to more than PSUV’s base. I pity them.
But their leaders? Unas raticas, for sure.
Just like Tarantino’s Landa, I can appreciate rats’ absolute determination to survive. It’s not pretty, but it’s primal.
When you choose to be a rata — a scheming, shady, treacherous creature — you trade esteem for survival.
Maybe it’s the fact that for the past two decades we’ve seen ruling chavistas huir hacia adelante: dash forwards and never look back. Maybe it’s the fact that, for the past half decade the opposition has played democracy in a game of lawlessness. Maybe it’s the way they’ve conditioned us to celebrate the exile and house arrest of political prisoners, but nothing more.
When you choose to be a rata — a scheming, shady, treacherous creature — you trade esteem for survival.
And that’s the bargain they’ve made: to wallow in universal scorn, so long as they’re able to survive.
They’re four-to-one down on the polls, ruling over a hungry nation, with no legitimate international allies in sight, presiding over a lingering sense of este peo va a estallar…but still suckin air. And more cuatriboleaos than ever.
Because it does take balls to strip the legislative power of everything but its Palace. To use lower courts to derail a basic citizen right. To not give a flying fuck that people are digging in dumpsters for a peach pit. It takes the magnificent disinterest of a rat, in a corner, digging.
As we try to make sense of what it is these guys are up to, it’s vital to keep in mind the context of the decision making in which la cúpula roja is making its calls. The more ilegal and erratic the option, the more plausible and likely it is they’ll go for it. They’ve transcended any kind of concern for democratic plausibility. It’s not about looking good. It’s about surviving.
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