Hmmm I wonder about that… What you’re saying about corruption is true, of course, but I wonder to what extent this is really a step forward and not just a nothing-burger from the opposition…
Well, it does seem to be already decided, anyway.
I’m curious; what party do you think will win the early elections? PSD? PS? Something else? I fear that this whole debacle might embolden Chega, which I think would be terrible… Though Chega has had some issues recently, so maybe they won’t benefit from this, I don’t know.
Who are you thinking of voting for? I wonder about Volt.
Sorry about all these questions, I just don’t have a lot of people that I feel too comfortable talking about Portuguese politics with, IRL…
I’m thinking about the trend over time when I talk of improvement, rather than just this one event as especially meaningful - 2 decades ago not a single politician in Portugal had ever been convicted of Corruption but nowadays governments can fall for suspect funny business before anybody is convicted of anything (mind you, it would be an even greater improvement if Justice was swift rather than the incredibly overwhelment and slow-moving thing it is in Portugal).
As for parties, I’m still on the sidelines though a cursory reading of the Volt site does indicate they’re aligned with my principles.
As for Chega, two points:
First from my own experience living in other countries of Europe, that kind of party tends to get stuck at around the 15% of votes and if they ever get power they fail miserably since their entire schtick is to critize others from the sidelines for not doing things perfectly, so when they themselves are in a position where they’re the ones having to do things, they’re seriously bad at it.
They’re not the only Far-Right party in Portugal: we also need to worry about IL, who are a Hard Neoliberal party aping the views of the most rightwing part of the Democrat Party in America (and probably the recipients in Portugal of the money Steve Bannon brough to Europe some years ago “to start far-right parties”) and who even had Privatisation Of Healtcare (i.e. the end of the National Health Service) in their original Electoral Program but took if of when it turned out that was wildly unpopular. The Fascist-style rightwing of Chega would be bad for most people, as would the pro-Oligarchy Democray-undermining ultra neoliberalism of IL.
2 decades ago not a single politician in Portugal had ever been convicted of Corruption but nowadays governments can fall for suspect funny business before anybody is convicted of anything
Fair point…
IL
Yeah, I don’t know much about them… The general idea I had of them was that they were libertarian. Sigh…
IL are Libertarian in the American sense (i.e. against the State, including those whose leadership has been elected by voters - i.e. Democracies - using its powers to regulate Money), and yeah, they’re also morally liberal as part of the package, but their focus is on making sure the Power Of Money is not constrained by the Power Of The State (which in Democracy means the Power Of Voters).
It’s not really about Freedom because in their worldview most people should still be constrained by the Power Of Money, most notably via things like maximum rights for ownership of exclusive resources such as Land - you can’t be Free if you’re born outside the Owner class in a World were all Land has an owner.
Essentially they’re Reaganism (which ultimatelly brought us present day America, which is quite behind the America from when it started in terms of Social Mobility, Equality and even Average Quality Of Life), but even harder that it was.
Hmmm I wonder about that… What you’re saying about corruption is true, of course, but I wonder to what extent this is really a step forward and not just a nothing-burger from the opposition…
Well, it does seem to be already decided, anyway.
I’m curious; what party do you think will win the early elections? PSD? PS? Something else? I fear that this whole debacle might embolden Chega, which I think would be terrible… Though Chega has had some issues recently, so maybe they won’t benefit from this, I don’t know.
Who are you thinking of voting for? I wonder about Volt.
Sorry about all these questions, I just don’t have a lot of people that I feel too comfortable talking about Portuguese politics with, IRL…
I’m thinking about the trend over time when I talk of improvement, rather than just this one event as especially meaningful - 2 decades ago not a single politician in Portugal had ever been convicted of Corruption but nowadays governments can fall for suspect funny business before anybody is convicted of anything (mind you, it would be an even greater improvement if Justice was swift rather than the incredibly overwhelment and slow-moving thing it is in Portugal).
As for parties, I’m still on the sidelines though a cursory reading of the Volt site does indicate they’re aligned with my principles.
As for Chega, two points:
Fair point…
Yeah, I don’t know much about them… The general idea I had of them was that they were libertarian. Sigh…
IL are Libertarian in the American sense (i.e. against the State, including those whose leadership has been elected by voters - i.e. Democracies - using its powers to regulate Money), and yeah, they’re also morally liberal as part of the package, but their focus is on making sure the Power Of Money is not constrained by the Power Of The State (which in Democracy means the Power Of Voters).
It’s not really about Freedom because in their worldview most people should still be constrained by the Power Of Money, most notably via things like maximum rights for ownership of exclusive resources such as Land - you can’t be Free if you’re born outside the Owner class in a World were all Land has an owner.
Essentially they’re Reaganism (which ultimatelly brought us present day America, which is quite behind the America from when it started in terms of Social Mobility, Equality and even Average Quality Of Life), but even harder that it was.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you, I totally understand what you’re saying. I see they’re not getting my vote, even if the sky falls.
I do have to do some more research on our parties, to be honest…