...in an election system that Jimmy Carter recently called "the best in the world."

But Chavez and those who organized and voted for him and his government have put some spectacularly good ideas back into the world, long suppressed since our New Deal days:

--that we are all in this together, in our countries and in the world--nobody is expendable.

--that to be civilized is to care for the poor, the sick, the young and the old, and to provide maximum opportunity for everyone's growth, improvement, talent and genius.

--that big business and "organized money" (as FDR put it) need to be curtailed in favor of civilization.

Nobody said it better than Hugo Chavez, which is why he is so sadly mourned in Venezuela and elsewhere in the world. But he was not alone. Those ideas are shared by multi-millions of people and will grow and overcome the lack of civilization here and in U.S./Corporate-dominated countries.

It's so obvious to me, but I know that it's hard for some others to perceive, especially those who depend on the Corporate Media for information. This message about civilization is intolerable to the transglobal corporate monsters and war profiteers who run things here, and thus they suppress it and lie about it endlessly and viciously. But it's basic and true: What are countries FOR? What is civilization FOR? Getting rich and stomping on everybody else? Venezuelans stood up as a people and said, "No!" And, despite virulent, universal propaganda from the Corporate Media, repeatedly voted for the Chavez government and its humane policies--a political revolution that has spread far and wide in Latin America and cannot be stopped.