Morochos.net: “Coup if Rightist (bad), Revolution if Leftist (good)”

Luis Alberto Lopez Rafaschieri and his twin brother Jose writing at Morochos.net in Venezuela have raised an interesting question.

A coup does sound bad, it implies brutal a military overthrow of a civilian government at the expense of the freedoms and aspirations of the people. It’s something that, while the US government has occasionally encouraged just that in the past, it is against our ideals as a nation. Remember, ideals are like Nirvana, you may not get there but you must constantly strive for them. Most coverage in the US seems to parrot the coup callers

A revolution on the other hand, well that is all about the people rising up against a corrupt and unrepresentative government and in one of the most famous revolutions, the shot heard round the world, successfully played out to form the United State of America. Some do seem to think somehow that our founders and Castro and Che were of the same mind.

So this does seem to be an ideal proposition to consider, are coup’s bad and revolutions good? Of course it is never that simple. My sympathies do recognize that words have meaning, sometimes too many meanings evoking diametrically opposed emotions, and in this case certain words and accompanied attitudes do not seem to bring any truth to the surface.

In the case of the current happenings in Honduras, I think the Obama administration and any knee jerkers might do some service by considering some of our oft repeated ideals and take a closer look at Honduras and the sides in opposition there and here.

For more on Luis and Jose’s opinions, please start with http://www.morochos.net/2009/07/crisis-in-honduras-june-july-2009-coup.html