September 9, 2007

An oppo harakiri in the making

Quico says: A little bird just put Hinterlaces' daily phone tracking poll for September 3rd, 4th and 5th in my inbox. It makes for some incredibly infuriating reading.

When asked whether they generally favor or oppose the Constitutional Reform proposal, 45% say they oppose it and 35% say they are in favor, while 20% are undecided or don't answer. 47% say the proposal threatens democracy, while 40% think it guarantees democracy. Only 26% think changing the constitution is necessary to shorten the workweek, while 54% think it could be done through a law. 64% want to be able to vote article by article, while just 26% think voting on the proposal as a block would be better.

Good news, right?

Wrong. Because, even though 45% of respondents generally oppose the reform, only 27% say they would go out and actually vote against it, while 26% say they wouldn't vote at all. Meanwhile, 31% say they would vote in favor of the proposal.

Which means Chávez could win without having to cheat, even though most people don't want the reform, all because we've psyched ourselves out of our best chance in years to clip the government's wings.

Abstentionism isn't politics, it's a vocación de martir...