VHeadline.com commentarist Charles Hardy writes: During the past few weeks important elections have taken place in the United States, Uruguay, Brazil and Venezuela. It will take time to see the effects of these elections, maybe a few months or maybe several years. No one can forecast at this moment the total impact.

I won‚t try to foretell the future but I do want to share eight observations of what I saw happening.

1) The only conversation that I had during the past year with a black US citizen was with a flight attendant. She told me that her college-educated husband had been out of work for two-years and that the unemployment rate for blacks in the United States was more than double that of white people. She told me that he sends his curriculum and gets a favorable response, but when he enters the office for the interview he can feel immediately that he will not get the job because he is black.

I thought of her husband when I learned that 9 out of 10 black voters in the US voted against President Bush. I still found the figures surprising. There must be a deep-seated dislike for the president in the black community. But the election results also seem to indicate that many people in the US are not concerned with the situation of the blacks (and possibly of the needs of all the unemployed). Not good.

2) In the barrio where I lived from 1985 to 1993, the people voted 91% in favor of President Chavez in the recent referendum. If I had been working for the opposition, I think I would have felt like a traitor to them and their ideals. With 89% of blacks voting against their boss, I wonder how Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell feel as representatives of the black community, not only nationally but also internationally. The blacks in the United States are a minority. In the world, dark-skinned people are the majority. Who speaks for them today in the US government?

3) Venezuelan Executive Vice President Jose Vincente Rangel had an interesting comment in the November 7 edition of ULTIMAS NOTICIAS. When asked about the US election results, he replied that Venezuela doesn‚t involve itself in the politics of the United States … in contrast to the US that does involve itself in the politics of Venezuela.

4) In the US, States that voted for Bush were the red states and those that voted for Kerry were the blue ones. In Venezuela red is considered the color of the Chavistas and it covered the whole nation, with the exception of two States. The opposition can definitely be considered as blue: some because they are sad; others because they are angry; and, some who have been holding their breaths so long hoping to see some new, vibrant and positive leaders in the opposition camp.

5) The opposition lost two important states in Venezuela, Miranda and Carabobo. Enrique Mendoza and Henrique Salas Feo could have won had their friends (or maybe ex-friends) in the Coordinadora Democratic (CD) not urged people to abstain from voting. Antonio Ledezma had no possibility of winning any office in this election, so he didn‚t run and just shouted that people should not vote. Unfortunately for Mendoza and Salas Feo in Carabobo, many in the opposition followed the advice of Ledezma and company. With friends like Ledezma, who needs enemies.

It has often been said that the ineptitude of the opposition is the best thing Chavez has going for him.

6) Traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole one discovers that water runs down the drains in the opposite direction after one crosses the equator. I sometimes think that is true of the blood that runs through people‚s bodies. While in the United States over 50% of the voters moved the political spectrum to the right, in Uruguay over 50% voted for Tabalre Vazquez and moved that country to the left for the first time in its history.

Argentina and Brazil have already swirled in that direction and there are strong movements alive in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador also. Venezuela is not south of the equator, but it is close to it.

Physically our planet functions well in spite of the water running in different directions … it will be interesting to see how the planet moves politically with different ideological currents.

7) While the candidates that Chavez supported for governors and mayors in the recent Venezuelan elections came out very strong, the same did not happen in Brazil where Lula‚s party lost the leadership in Sao Paulo and Puerto Alegre and 44 other cities. My guess is that the programs Chavez is pushing are extremely popular (although some of the candidates were not equally liked) whereas some of Lula‚s policies and candidates are not. This should serve as a warning to Chavez‚ MVR party that it better stay in touch with the ordinary person or the same fate could await it in the future.

8) Finally a very personal note. For the first time since 1960, I did not vote in this year‚s presidential elections. I couldn‚t. I had no ballot.

Shortly after the August primaries, I requested an absentee ballot since I currently reside in Venezuela. According to the postmarks, the office of the Laramie County Clerk in Cheyenne, Wyoming, sent me a ballot airmail on September 24. It arrived in Venezuela ten days later, on October 4, but I did not receive it until the day after the elections, November 3 … a month later.

I suppose we could place most of the blame on the Venezuelan postal service, but whomever we blame I have no assurance that the same will not occur again in the future.

One might say that my one vote would not have made a difference in Wyoming because the race was not that close. But elections are won because of many “one-votes‰ and my vote could make a difference in some future election.

What passed through my mind frequently as I awaited the arrival of my ballot was that another option should have been possible for me to cast my vote: the Internet.

Through the Internet I can make bank transfers — with security. If I had the money, I could even buy or sell stocks on Wall Street — with security. I can buy socks, pants, a computer or even an automobile through the Internet. Shouldn‚t I have been able to vote through the Internet also?

In the 19th century my native state of Wyoming became the first government in the world to grant women the right to vote. I would now like to see it among the leaders in the 21st century in allowing people to vote through the Internet … at least when they are outside of the United States?

If astronauts can vote from outer space, shouldn‚t a US citizen residing in a foreign country be able to vote from inner space?

Charlie

A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming (USA), VHeadline.com
columnist Charles Hardy has many years experience

as an international correspondent in Venezuela.
You may email him at: mailto:hardyce2@yahoo.com
In addition to his VHeadline editorials, you may find other writings of Charles Hardy at www.cowboyincaracas.com/
www.vheadline.com/hardy