Spanish voters have once again elected to ignore the obvious lessons of their history and chosen a regime of regression, repression and rot to govern for the next four years. Regression to the Regan-esque policies and Bush-like execution that got them into this mess in the first place: Repression of the unions, and privatization of hard-won social programs like education, retirement, unemployment and job protection and; rot from within the party that applauds the membership of dozens of people involved in all kinds of corruption and malfeasance – some already under investigation or even indictment – and rewards them with powerful positions within the party. As a middle class, non-voting, resident American I watch from the outside and it is unlikely that whatever the ultra conservative Popular Party comes up with in the next few years will hurt me much one way or another. Not so for the average Spaniard, I fear!
Unfortunately the situation here parallels much too closely the one we have in the U.S.. There is no longer a political spectrum. Instead there are ultras in both political directions ··· but that’s it. The moderate conservatives and liberals too, for that matter, have disappeared or leaned so far in their respective directions that the center ground (and thus the area of possible political consensus) has disappeared. I hope that, before they go to the polls in the upcoming U.S. elections, American voters and politicians will recognize this and learn something from the disasters that are bound to plague Spaniards in the upcoming months and years. But I am not optimistic!
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Spanish Election Blues
Spanish voters have once again elected to ignore the obvious lessons of their history and chosen a regime of regression, repression and rot to govern for the next four years. Regression to the Regan-esque policies and Bush-like execution that got them into this mess in the first place: Repression of the unions, and privatization of hard-won social programs like education, retirement, unemployment and job protection and; rot from within the party that applauds the membership of dozens of people involved in all kinds of corruption and malfeasance – some already under investigation or even indictment – and rewards them with powerful positions within the party. As a middle class, non-voting, resident American I watch from the outside and it is unlikely that whatever the ultra conservative Popular Party comes up with in the next few years will hurt me much one way or another. Not so for the average Spaniard, I fear!
Unfortunately the situation here parallels much too closely the one we have in the U.S.. There is no longer a political spectrum. Instead there are ultras in both political directions ··· but that’s it. The moderate conservatives and liberals too, for that matter, have disappeared or leaned so far in their respective directions that the center ground (and thus the area of possible political consensus) has disappeared. I hope that, before they go to the polls in the upcoming U.S. elections, American voters and politicians will recognize this and learn something from the disasters that are bound to plague Spaniards in the upcoming months and years. But I am not optimistic!
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