How does everyone feel about Leonel being the next President?

trina · #1 05-10-2004, 12:16 PM

If Hippo doesn't cheat to win this election, how does everyone feel about Leonel being elected for President again? As far as I'm concerned, any President stepping in after Hippo is going to have a terrible term, sifting through the cr*p he is leaving behind. Many Dominicans hated Leonel during his term, but many also liked Leonel, and would've liked to see him continue to a second term.

How do you feel about Leonel being the next President? Are you only voting Leonel because he's the lesser of all evils and to rid yourselves of Hippocrito?

Ken · #2 05-10-2004, 12:39 PM

If I could vote, it would be for Leonel. He initiated some very progressive things during his first term and would like to see him back in office.

There were complaints about Leonel during his first term, but now many of the complainers are wondering why having seen the alternative.

Forbeca · #3 05-10-2004, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trina

How do you feel about Leonel being the next President? Are you only voting Leonel because he's the lesser of all evils and to rid yourselves of Hippocrito?

That seems to be the general consensus. My family and all our friends in the DR are going w/ Leonel, but they're not in love with him. They are at their wits end. It doesn't look good Trina.

trina · #4 05-10-2004, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forbeca

It doesn't look good Trina.

I agree, but I don't know if anyone could step into that office after Hippo's terrorization and come out smelling like roses.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, I haven't studied up enough on Leonel to understand why people have a love/hate relationship with this man. My first visit to the DR was in 1998, and shortly after is when I started reading the board and Dominican news. I may have missed something (or a lot), but nothing bad about Leonel sticks out in my mind. I can give you thousands of reasons why Hippo can not continue as President...can anyone (and I'm sure many can) inform me as to why Leonel wouldn't be a good choice? Please provide me with specific happenings that occured during his rule that made him a bad President.

Thanks in advance

Rocky · #5 05-10-2004, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trina

If Hippo doesn't cheat to win this election, how does everyone feel about Leonel being elected for President again? As far as I'm concerned, any President stepping in after Hippo is going to have a terrible term, sifting through the cr*p he is leaving behind. Many Dominicans hated Leonel during his term, but many also liked Leonel, and would've liked to see him continue to a second term.

How do you feel about Leonel being the next President? Are you only voting Leonel because he's the lesser of all evils and to rid yourselves of Hippocrito?

You are given the choice of living on a desert island with Ted Bundy or Martha Stewart.

trina · #6 05-10-2004, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken

If I could vote, it would be for Leonel. He initiated some very progressive things during his first term and would like to see him back in office.

There were complaints about Leonel during his first term, but now many of the complainers are wondering why having seen the alternative.

I completely agree with you here. I wonder if many Dominicans didn't like him because he didn't go for the giveaways like other Presidents, and because he was trying to get rid of corruption. At least, that was my perception..again, I have to add the disclaimer that I'm not very well-read when it comes to Leonel's presidency...my husband says good things about Leonel, so that's where I'm basing my knowledge.

trina · #7 05-10-2004, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocky

You are given the choice of living on a desert island with Ted Bundy or Martha Stewart.

That's quite the analogy

! Come on, elaborate, please...

Chris · #8 05-10-2004, 02:51 PM

Like you Trina, I do not feel that I see the whole picture here. However, talking to Dominican friends and professionals, the main criticisms against Leonel are that (1) he was perhaps too US centric and (2) that he did not do enough for the poor - in fact, that he lost touch with the poor totally and with his constituency. I was talking with some young Dominican professionals last week (hipolito supporters mostly because of family ties) and they quite seriously believe that the hipo is indeed helping the pobre, citing examples of him giving away building materials and so on and so on. Short-term thinking I know, but they were quite serious about this.

A 30-ish female laywer told me in quite some despair that obviously the hipo must go, but that they do not feel that Leonel is the best other option, so, she feels like she has to choose between bad and somewhat better, but not bad and good.

A rental car business owner in Cabarete told me just a few days ago that he feels he is financially and economically better off with Hipo, than what he was with Leonel. He said that with Hipo, he has money in his pocket and can feed his family, with Leonel, he was always struggling for money, despite running the same business. (OK, I know that he is not taking the exchange rate fluctuations into consideration, but nevertheless, this is his opinion.)

These are just observations and what I have heard from people. I've been here too short a time to assess what it really means.

trina · #9 05-10-2004, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

Like you Trina, I do not feel that I see the whole picture here. However, talking to Dominican friends and professionals, the main criticisms against Leonel are that (1) he was perhaps too US centric and (2) that he did not do enough for the poor - in fact, that he lost touch with the poor totally and with his constituency. I was talking with some young Dominican professionals last week (hipolito supporters mostly because of family ties) and they quite seriously believe that the hipo is indeed helping the pobre, citing examples of him giving away building materials and so on and so on. Short-term thinking I know, but they were quite serious about this.

A 30-ish female laywer told me in quite some despair that obviously the hipo must go, but that they do not feel that Leonel is the best other option, so, she feels like she has to choose between bad and somewhat better, but not bad and good.

A rental car business owner in Cabarete told me just a few days ago that he feels he is financially and economically better off with Hipo, than what he was with Leonel. He said that with Hipo, he has money in his pocket and can feed his family, with Leonel, he was always struggling for money, despite running the same business. (OK, I know that he is not taking the exchange rate fluctuations into consideration, but nevertheless, this is his opinion.)

These are just observations and what I have heard from people. I've been here too short a time to assess what it really means.

Thank you, Chris. I'd like to see a lot more responses like this. It's funny through all these above observations, the short-term mentality of the Dominican people prevails (sorry for the generalization to the Dominicans who do not buy into this way of thinking). This must come through many years of despair and little hope. As far as Leonel being too US-centric, I can see where it can pose a problem...the DR will never be able to offer the riches and resources the US possesses, so modeling itself after the US would be fruitless.

suarezn · #10 05-10-2004, 03:06 PM

Trina: You must understand that The PRD is the largest party in The DR. It's been like that for a long time. The only times they didn't win, was because they were out-maneuvered by Balaguer. How did they get to be the largest party? They give away a lot of stuff to their members...They don't really care about the country as a whole, just the PRD people. When Hippo became president one of his "advisors" - Gomez mazara - was caught on tape giving a speech where he said that every bit of money or any resource was going to be given away or used by the PRd and for PRD people only, AND it there was anything left after that, they would take it and give it to the PRD.
So the main complaint against Leonel and the PLD was that they were "comesolos" - They didn't spread the wealth. Why? because they didn't put tons of people to "work" for the government like The PRD and Balaguer did. You and I understand that to be good thing, but people don't see it that way in The DR. People down there are looking for what they can get out of a particular party (screw the country...What's in it for me?)
If Leonel was to win, I think you'd see a very different government than before. I think they will act a lot more like the current PRD than the old PLD. I think you'll see a lot more populist measures taken, such as maintaining the gas and electricity subsidies, giving away food bags, etc...