Elections and Contradictions

So, one of the major things in Spain in this moment are the upcoming presidential elections, on the 20th of December, and what kind of "blogger" would I be if I didn't have my two cents about absolutely everything?

Not to diminish neither my own opinion, my right to express it or the importance of politics of course.

As I don't have my voting card and I'm not sure how I would go about acquiring one should I be allowed to have one, the best way to participate in these elections is to inform myself of the various options that are out there. On one side of the scale you have a bunch of smaller left wing parties, syndicalists, communists, workers unions and the united left. We move further on the scale and we find bigger parties like the sensation Podemos and the older social democrat PSOE. Moving right along, the scale tips towards the blue PP, the even more extreme right Ciudadanos and out towards the brown, and darker, parties.

It's a really dauntingly wide range of parties with nuances of every color imaginable. From personal experience, and in my personal opinion, I see people very ready to voice their opinions about just about any political matter, but fed up with just about every option there is on the political map. Is that why a party such as Podemos has had it's meteoric rise?

The two biggest, and most traditional parties, PP and PSOE have both been sending us letters, begging us to vote for each of them respectively, but have had very different rhetoric and used very different tactics.

To dissect what has been said, let's start with PP. A long letter, almost two pages, where about a quarter deals with how much the current government has had to "clean up" after the previous PSOE-led government. About two and a half quarters deal with what they actually want to work on in the future, which is, according to the letter, just about everything from higher pensions to fighting ISIS. And the last little paragraph is a very clever little passage that tells us that "our president" doesn't really care what we vote for. As long as we participate in the democratic process we will have his eternal thanks. With this type of rhetoric they convert him into the almighty, all-knowing and ever-loving father who's okay with seeing us make our own mistakes, as long as we know the consequences of making the "wrong choice".

Moving on to PSOE.

There's literally NOTHING more going on in the entire one page letter than a smear-campaign and complaints about the current government. There's no plan of action for anything and there's literally only three points that they vaguely hint are at the heart of their campaign. There's not even a point that they're making stating "this is why we're better than the other guys". It's a really childish form of rhetoric that makes me seriously question their legitimacy as a party. And on top of that, they sent us two letters, one addressed to an adult and the other to a "joven"/young person, where the arguments and the language was so base it made me want to throw up.

The youth of today is not stupid. Let's just make that clear. Some of us make stupid choices, but that does not mean that we're a bunch of ill-informed, non-interested idiots. It makes us young. So don't you dare to dumb down your language or your "arguments" to attract my vote, it only makes me pissed to see you trying to "communicate on my level".

All of this is really, really sad and probably hurtful to the demographic that they're trying so hard to get in contact with.

My conclusion, long-winded as it may be, is this; neither of you would get my vote, if I could vote, for political reasons of course, but also because I find both parties rhetoric so far away from what I consider to be real politics, where ideas battle ideas, that I'm wondering where the hell we're headed.

Make your informed choice, you who can, and vote, because otherwise I believe you've forfeited any kind of right to voice any complaints you may have.

Don't be a stranger! Loves