Sebastián Piñera’s victory last week marks the first time in over half a century that Chileans have elected a conservative as their president. It also marks the successful conclusion of Chile’s transition to democracy.

Like adolescents embarrassed by their parents Chilean voters have for years complained about the increasingly corrupt and incompetent center-left coalition governing their country. But, like the adolescent that can’t bring himself to decamp from the family basement and actually head out on his own, Chile’s voters suffered a perennial failure of nerve at the moment of actually casting the ballot that would emancipate them from their familiar but venal government. On January 17, they packed the proverbial stereo, the magic cards, and the contents of their coat rack into the back seat of their aging Dodge Colt and finally struck out into the world on their own.