Western leftists who said Chavez/Maduro should stay in power forever got very quiet when food riots, repression & mass emigration began. Now they're saying the same things about Evo Morales. Fortunately, the Bolivian people aren't listening to them. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
The arguments in defense of the centralization of power and rising authoritarianism are always different, but the results are always the same: corruption, stagnation, dictatorship, repression, violence.
Right or left or pure tribalism, if your ideas are successful and you are actually popular, you can win a free and fair election. Resorting to repression & manipulation to retain power fails the test of democracy.
Waiting for an authoritarian regime to consolidate control behind a facade of democracy is why Putin is in his 20th year & why Maduro is still hanging on, like too many others. Ukraine instead chose to fight like hell before that happened, and is still fighting for freedom.
