I have time for another political rant.
Some days ago I read in a newspaper that the main "left" party in Spain (well, for the past few years they have acted like a right-wing party mostly), called PSOE, had a big meeting to refund themselves with new ideas and objectives. And the list of ideas is quite impressive. For example, they are proposing to made a law regarding salaries, so the highest salary in a company is not more than 12 times the lowest salary of that same company. This is not the only proposal, and in general they sound better than what they've been doing till now.
The problem is credibility: First, while ruling in the past, they betrayed the socialist principles quite often. They've also had several important corruption cases, and when European government demanded some actions from them, they easily followed whatever they were told even when clearly their voters would be against it. Second, even right now they have all these nice ideas...while keeping the same people in positions of power, and maintaining the idea that no one inside their party can go against whatever has been decided in the party. Basically, the party works like a small dictatorship, and you should follow orders from above.
The other main party, PP, has the same dictatorial behaviour plus they're directly heirs of the Spanish fascism. Compare Spain with other European countries, and the extreme-right parties are non-important. That's why because the supposedly "moderate right" party of the country is actually this extreme right, fascism reborn with the same people or their relatives.
Both main parties have lied, favoured their rich friends, accepted bribes and corruption, and did other things thinking only about themselves. That's why when they propose changes, it's rather unimpressive: Not following their own electoral program is the norm. Particularly with PP, if you want to know what's going to happen next or what's really going on, just assume the exact opposite of whatever they say. As per PSOE, if they really apply these changes, it would be great, but right now before we believe them they need to prove themselves, and that's achievable by not having people there that don't even have studies, they're just relatives of members in power or they've been working their way up the party all their life without any proof that they're even competent at government or able to do anything whatsoever apart from licking asses.
Apart from that....PP lately has approved some terrible laws, against protests and against abortion, similar to Franco's laws.
However, there's not much more to say...while these people are in power, and the same people decide their successors, these parties will not change, and we should not be surprised with a fascist country (version 2.0). If they were truly refunded, by kicking out anybody with some power inside the party, maybe something would improve, but as it is, it's not believable that anything will change.
So, what can we do?
Well, the problem of writing rants, or making websites and posts to warn and criticise some parties is that people with the same ideas are the ones that will read those rants and articles and websites. No matter how angry we are, how much proof do we have of the wrongdoings of some parties, the people that may actually change their minds will never read those. Internet works that way, you're more likely to form communities and follow news about people that match your opinions, so you can all agree while being angry at those other idiots that don't know what they're doing....which is a problem that closes your mentality to new ideas, of course....
We have a problem with advertising. In order to change mentalities, we should try ways to make these messages arrive to the people that will never check this blog, for example.
I believe we should print papers with single simple messages. If there's walls of text, nobody is going to read them. With simple message stating simple truths, maybe some change is possible.
For example, a simple message would be "If you don't vote or vote null or with a white paper, PP and PSOE (or the big parties in general) get more members of parliament". This is a simple message, easy to read, that is also true. Another example: "The current voting laws favour the big parties. PP is ruling the country with 53% of parliament having only 30% of voters' support". Even another: "With the money the government gave to the banks, public healthcare and education would not need cuts". And so on.
Then, we distribute the papers. Put them in walls, give them to people, even just leave them on the street. Yes, not very eco-friendly, but well, it's less echo-friendly to have our current politicians...
And, here's the key point: These papers needs to be distributed in towns (cities as well, but towns should be the main focus). The current electoral law is rigged so areas with small population represent a big chunk of the parliament. The theory is that this way no area is left without representation. The practice is that these areas are designed to maximize member of parliaments form the big parties.
Well, let's hit them where it hurts. Let's distribute these papers in small towns and populations. You visit grandparents in some small nice town in the mountains? You bring papers. You go on vacations through the Santiago way? You bring papers. You need to travel across Spain for work? You distribute papers along the way.
I'm not sure about the legality of this, but I believe it may be possible as long as all messages are true and simple. You don't write "all politics from PSOE and PP are corrupt", since that's not true and can be considered defamation...you write "PP and PSOE have X members of their parties accused of corruption", which is true, and does not declare if they're guilty or not, just shows that's it's a problem affecting lots of them.
Maybe I'm idealistic, but I believe that by putting a lot of focus in towns, something may change. Even if little by little...
Spain's problem is misinformation, false advertisement and lack of evident choices. This is a strategy from the big parties. Well, we should counter-act it. If we start now, maybe next elections we manage to kick some people out of their permanent seats...
The problem is credibility: First, while ruling in the past, they betrayed the socialist principles quite often. They've also had several important corruption cases, and when European government demanded some actions from them, they easily followed whatever they were told even when clearly their voters would be against it. Second, even right now they have all these nice ideas...while keeping the same people in positions of power, and maintaining the idea that no one inside their party can go against whatever has been decided in the party. Basically, the party works like a small dictatorship, and you should follow orders from above.
The other main party, PP, has the same dictatorial behaviour plus they're directly heirs of the Spanish fascism. Compare Spain with other European countries, and the extreme-right parties are non-important. That's why because the supposedly "moderate right" party of the country is actually this extreme right, fascism reborn with the same people or their relatives.
Both main parties have lied, favoured their rich friends, accepted bribes and corruption, and did other things thinking only about themselves. That's why when they propose changes, it's rather unimpressive: Not following their own electoral program is the norm. Particularly with PP, if you want to know what's going to happen next or what's really going on, just assume the exact opposite of whatever they say. As per PSOE, if they really apply these changes, it would be great, but right now before we believe them they need to prove themselves, and that's achievable by not having people there that don't even have studies, they're just relatives of members in power or they've been working their way up the party all their life without any proof that they're even competent at government or able to do anything whatsoever apart from licking asses.
Apart from that....PP lately has approved some terrible laws, against protests and against abortion, similar to Franco's laws.
However, there's not much more to say...while these people are in power, and the same people decide their successors, these parties will not change, and we should not be surprised with a fascist country (version 2.0). If they were truly refunded, by kicking out anybody with some power inside the party, maybe something would improve, but as it is, it's not believable that anything will change.
So, what can we do?
Well, the problem of writing rants, or making websites and posts to warn and criticise some parties is that people with the same ideas are the ones that will read those rants and articles and websites. No matter how angry we are, how much proof do we have of the wrongdoings of some parties, the people that may actually change their minds will never read those. Internet works that way, you're more likely to form communities and follow news about people that match your opinions, so you can all agree while being angry at those other idiots that don't know what they're doing....which is a problem that closes your mentality to new ideas, of course....
We have a problem with advertising. In order to change mentalities, we should try ways to make these messages arrive to the people that will never check this blog, for example.
I believe we should print papers with single simple messages. If there's walls of text, nobody is going to read them. With simple message stating simple truths, maybe some change is possible.
For example, a simple message would be "If you don't vote or vote null or with a white paper, PP and PSOE (or the big parties in general) get more members of parliament". This is a simple message, easy to read, that is also true. Another example: "The current voting laws favour the big parties. PP is ruling the country with 53% of parliament having only 30% of voters' support". Even another: "With the money the government gave to the banks, public healthcare and education would not need cuts". And so on.
Then, we distribute the papers. Put them in walls, give them to people, even just leave them on the street. Yes, not very eco-friendly, but well, it's less echo-friendly to have our current politicians...
And, here's the key point: These papers needs to be distributed in towns (cities as well, but towns should be the main focus). The current electoral law is rigged so areas with small population represent a big chunk of the parliament. The theory is that this way no area is left without representation. The practice is that these areas are designed to maximize member of parliaments form the big parties.
Well, let's hit them where it hurts. Let's distribute these papers in small towns and populations. You visit grandparents in some small nice town in the mountains? You bring papers. You go on vacations through the Santiago way? You bring papers. You need to travel across Spain for work? You distribute papers along the way.
I'm not sure about the legality of this, but I believe it may be possible as long as all messages are true and simple. You don't write "all politics from PSOE and PP are corrupt", since that's not true and can be considered defamation...you write "PP and PSOE have X members of their parties accused of corruption", which is true, and does not declare if they're guilty or not, just shows that's it's a problem affecting lots of them.
Maybe I'm idealistic, but I believe that by putting a lot of focus in towns, something may change. Even if little by little...
Spain's problem is misinformation, false advertisement and lack of evident choices. This is a strategy from the big parties. Well, we should counter-act it. If we start now, maybe next elections we manage to kick some people out of their permanent seats...
No comments:
Post a Comment