elections Archivi

Posts tagged "elections"

The poisoned well of American politics

But the genius of Trump morphed a disaster into an opportunity. In the next article I’ll try to explain how this is possible in my estimation. Side Note to the election results. I’m not used to American television. You Americans surely put up with a shocking (and I mean, shocking, exhausting) amount of commercials! At times I thought that the entire point of election coverage was insurance plans and prescription drugs, with frequent interruptions informing us about Arby’s, pillows, windshield wipers, a crooked penis condition (!) and, yes, repetitive announcements about the upcoming interview with a politician… Midterm: Everybody Wins? The political climate that lead to this US general…

Yawn @ German elections

The obligatory comments on the 2017 German general election are pouring in, with pundits serving up large scoops of alarmed rhetoric over the unprecedented return of “the Nazis” to the Bundestag (German Parliament), for the first time since WWII. The reality is way more mundane and unimpressive. The new “populist” party AfD (Alternative für Deutschland = Alternative for Germany) this time was able to seize an impressive 13% of the vote, while in 2013 they fell short of the 5% barrier to entry in the parliament. But they’re far from being Nazi sympathizers. You may ask yourself, instead, since their political platform would have been deemed pretty reasonable for a…

Reshuffling. Or: About The Capricious Voter

Philippines, electoral advertising in the streets

Pretending to change the rules of the game while being predictable and misinformed. Recent General Elections in the UK and France, plus local mayoral races in Italy, represent good examples of a puzzling trend: voters ostensibly voting to upset the forces in power, or at least those forces that seem stronger at the moment, as if the unwashed masses wanted to evade control (while actually failing at it). As if moderation and wisdom were embodied by an erratic behavior that isn’t fully committed to any cause or political project, instead rushing to support the latest movement or political figure promising “change”, then at the next opportunity punishing that very same party…

What About The Netherlands? Wait. What about Islam?

women on a boat, contrasting attire: bikins, niqab

UPDATE ↓ Wilders can’t score Holland or Turkey? Tomorrow, March 15, is election day in the Netherlands. Will Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch nationalist party PVV (Party For Freedom) win? I can’t pretend to know. I’m really not an expert. I may go out on a limb and predict that he will prevail, but only marginally, on the incumbent Mark Rutte. What you can put your money on is that Thursday’s newspapers across the western world will contain high howls from pundits lamenting the horrible risk for the stability of Europe and the survival of democracy represented by the Ultra-Nationalist, xenophobic, Islamophobic far right movement led by Wilders.…