Chile rejects draft constitution in blow to leftist President Boric

[SouthBayDem]

Source: Axios

Voters in Chile on Sunday rejected a progressive constitution that would have drastically changed the country.

Why it matters: It's a major blow to leftist President Gabriel Boric and his supporters who championed the draft text, which would have enshrined reproductive, education, housing and Indigenous rights.

It would have also required the country set up a national health care system, and made addressing climate change a constitutional state duty.

The draft text would have replaced the current constitution, which dates to 1980, when dictator Augusto Pinochet was in power.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2022/09/05/chile-constitution-referedum-results-reject-rights

[peppertree]

1. Boric's mistake is including a clause that would've changed the name of the country

To "Plurinational State of Chile."

Besides being controversial in itself, it echoes Bolivia (which, a decade ago, did the same thing).

It's hard to overstate the sheer disdain most Chileans have for Bolivia.

My guess is that if they had just left that one clause out, it might've won by a few points - even with all the right-wing barrage against it.

They'll have another chance, so we'll see.

[Crowman2009]

2. Just like the Alabama state constitution, it was too long.

[peppertree]

3. That too - absolutely.

From what I gather, that was one of the talking points right-wing media down there used against it.

Faux News has nothing on Latin American RW media as far as deviousness, let me tell you.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for sharing the fact Chile's majority really disdains Bolivia. Had no idea!

Had read, over the years, reference to unpleasant treatment of Bolivian economic immigrants, but I completely didn't grasp the larger picture.

Is this because Chile's population is much "whiter" than Bolivia's majority of Native people? That's what hit me after reading your post.

That's a real shame.

I'm sure the "Plurinacional" part you mentioned really rubbed them the wrong way. It does seem the Chilean right-wing has a pretty exalted opinion of their right-wing politicians and the wretched society Pinochet tried to eternalize.



Gen. "My future's so bright, I just gotta wear
shades" Pinochet

[JanMichael]

9. Fucking Nazis. Next to last photo...

[peppertree]

10. To be fair, it's not just Chile. Bolivia's a favorite punching bag of many South American white folk

You say Bolivia - and they immediately picture a very short, brown, and poor indigenous woman with a bowler hat, poncho, and a baby strapped to her back.

"With another on the way!" they'll snort.

I can't claim to have known many Bolivians - but the few I know were, without exception, some of the most diligent and polite people you may ever meet. And as you know, they do many of the most thankless jobs in Chile, Argentina and elsewhere.

That said, the 'plurinational' clause did play right into the RW media's hands - and boy, were they (and the RW troll farms) busy. It is what it is.

Thanks as always for keeping up with news from south of the border, Judi. Have a great Labor Day, and a pleasant week.

[Polybius]

11. Damn, a dictator with a cape

Are there any left in the world?

[PSPS]

5. The "no" side flooded the media with ads misrepresenting the new constitution

From https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-09-02/chiles-new-constitution-is-put-to-the-test-at-a-vote

This TV spot claims, falsely, that the new constitution will provide more rights to criminals than to their victims. The negative messaging seems to be working. Recent polls show more Chileans plan to reject the new constitution than ratify it. If so, it would be a blow to President Gabriel Boric.

[onetexan]

7. Found this from a great article from the New Yorker magazine

“Yes, we have a responsibility to train for the world of employment, but are we educating for life, and without historical knowledge you are not ready for life,” Blight told me. As our political discourse is increasingly dominated by sources who care nothing for truth or credibility, we come closer and closer to the situation that Walter Lippmann warned about a century ago, in his seminal “Liberty and the News.” “Men who have lost their grip upon the relevant facts of their environment are the inevitable victims of agitation and propaganda. The quack, the charlatan, the jingo . . . can flourish only where the audience is deprived of independent access to information,” he wrote. A nation whose citizens have no knowledge of history is asking to be led by quacks, charlatans, and jingos. As he has proved ever since he rode to political prominence on the lie of Barack Obama’s birthplace, Trump is all three. And, without more history majors, we are doomed to repeat him."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-decline-of-historical-thinking

[ancianita]

8. +1

[tirebiter]

6. How many people wrote this constitution

Imagine what MAGAs would do to a rewrite of our constitution like what trumps scotus intends to do

[Judi Lynn]

12. It has been the obsession with corporate "news" writers to always "out"

every leader in a story who is progressive, who works toward the betterment of the lower classes, labeling the person as "leftist" leader, or "socialist" leader, or even designating "socialist" leaders as "communists."

How many Presidents or other politicians do you ever see announced as a "right-wing" President, or a capitalist" leader? They have never re?ferred to any of them as "conservative." Why is that?

It was their "fascist" madman, thief, torturer, mass murderer, and Nixon-planted dictator Pinochet who, with heavy US input created their strongly anti-democratic constitution in the first place. Why shouldn't the people be desperate to replace it by now? Pinochet even sought leadership for his economy from the "Chicago Boys." It's well past time Chile did get a "leftist" President, and it's past time the media starts allowing people to read the unspun truth for the first time in their lives.