There is something majestic about the power of the markets. No dictator, anywhere can control them. They do what they do, based on thousands of decisions by thousands of individuals, acting on a collective wisdom. No central planning can match this people’s verdict in reflecting the here and now, or the future. That’s a people-power Hugo Chavez repeatedly disparages and discounts even as he claims to represent the aspirations of the people.

Today, it wasn’t George Bush who spoke but the People of the United States who issued a majestic market verdict on him.

That was evident in action taken today, when 7-Eleven dropped Citgo as a contractor for its U.S. gasoline stations. Over 1100 stations will lose their Citgo label in favor of a new homebrew 7-Eleven brand gas. The cause? 7-Eleven made no bones about it. They said that they couldn’t stand Hugo Chavez and all his anti-American statements. They had a PR disaster on their hands, the American public was upset, and they were losing customers. No doubt they had been getting a lot of calls from irate Americans, angry at 7-Eleven’s sales of Venezuelan petroleum in the U.S. after Hugo Chavez called President Bush a devil and said that U.S. democracy was a sham to benefit elites.

On that day, Chavez proved himself to be nothing more than a thug before all the world from the podium of the United Nations. And a slow-burning boycott of Venezuelan fuel turned into a firestorm. That’s why 7-Eleven told Venezuelan-owned Citgo to find some other marketer.

Net result? Consequences for Chavez’s hard abusive words. Not from Bush but from the American people, millions of millions of them, acting in a pocketbook revolution to send a message to the Venezuelan tyrant, who thought he could get away with anything.

This great nation of 300 million people are Chavez’s biggest oil customer. Enough of them together boycotted Chavez, sending an eloquent message about democracy that no retort from Bush could drive home harder. They told Chavez to take his oil and get out. While politicians were falling all over themselves to accept Chavez’s cheap fuel for pork barrel votes, Americans on their own were quitely repudiating the Venezuelan thug, sending him a message that they aren’t interested in buying oil from a menacing dictator who abuses them.

Just say the devil made them do it.

Miguel Octavio has an excellent essay conveying the full rage and disgust of Chavez’s action that provoked 7-Eleven to stand up on its hind legs to the Venezuelan dictator right here.

And via RealClearPolitics, here is a new IBD editorial on the issue, describing the message the American people sent to Hugo Chavez (along with the stunned reaction in Caracas) here.

UPDATE: You gotta see this item from Wizbang Bomb Squad about poor people all over the country telling Hugo to take his cheap gas and shove it. Cripes, it’s happening everywhere. Read it here.