Ways to lose voters

“I have struck again.

I am in top form”, Silvio Berlusconi boasted a few days ago, interrupting a television interview after killing a fly.

Fact that, of course, was picked up even in the Spanish press.

Politics?

Better let's talk about catching flies and repeat that sequence ad nauseam.

This is one more anecdote of how far the press and politicians can go in a degeneration that is contributing to the boredom and disenchantment of politics in the West.

In Spain, according to last year's Eurobarometer, 75% of Spaniards are suspicious of the Government and Congress, while 90% distrust political parties, and from then until now I fear that the percentages have not changed much.

That being the case, the questions come out by themselves.

How did we get here?

Who have been the facilitators, instigators,

of this nonsense that harms us all?

What needs to change for this trend to reverse?

Because, you will agree with me, the mere act of going down to buy bread, deciding which school to take your child to or the place where to buy a sweater is already a political act.

Eisenhower already said that "politics should be the part-time profession of every citizen."

In Spain, as we are all registered by default in the electoral census, we cannot know who would or would not register to vote, as happens in other countries.

But, evidence prevails, election after election the number of voters who go to the polls decreases and those voters who would have voted for a left-wing party do so —the ideological orientation is not trivial— less and less.

I can think of three factors that explain this disaffection.

The first is disenchantment with politics, which seemed to be focused on building a fairer social order before and is now more concerned with remaining in office.

The second, the loss of adherence to the great ideals, which now seem unrealizable or we don't even remember them anymore, worried about what is close and immediate.

And, lastly, the disappointment in the behavior of politicians who, more and more, we see unable to keep their promises.

The casuistry ranges from debates around a social food basket with a price limit, which we know the Government does not have the capacity to impose;

politicians caught saying they want to get rich (Eduardo Zaplana

).

All of the above brings us closer to a discomfort, a rejection, or protest about the methods of operation of the political system in which we live, as well as about its institutions and its actors and, what is worse, to have a feeling of abandonment of the citizens by the State and its representatives, the politicians.

How many times have you heard that "I don't trust politicians"?

It is clear that offering or promising and not fulfilling ends up taking its toll sooner or later at the polls, which are ultimately the great victims and with them democracy.

In fact, the corrupt know that their best ally is a citizen's feeling that everyone is equal and, as a consequence, political apathy and resignation towards corruption and contempt for citizens appear.

And at this point, I also have three hypotheses.

There is no vote because: if this is already good, why vote;

if everything is wrong, everything will remain the same, and for what vote;

And finally, political activity is useless if the politicians have come here to steal money and, of course, for what vote.

Since I believe that most people do not think about the first reason, I am afraid that we will end up falling into one of the other two assumptions, because I have no doubt that the political parties are designed to channel the demands of civil society in the political system and they are the political actors on which we must support ourselves.

The democratic State, and its representatives, must be powerful enough to be able to respond to the multiple demands of a strong and diversified civil society.

If this does not happen, the ghost of the existence of a government disconnected from the people, of a future dominated by powers alien to democracy, will begin to haunt the minds of many citizens (if it does not do so already), which, it is necessary to be a guess, it does not promise too many social benefits.

In other words, it is clear that the current model of liberal democracy is inoperative and absurd and its process of electing leaders is ineffective (presidents are elected with the support of a fifth of the citizens), and when voting is done in many cases it is done negatively, because although one does not end up enthusiastic about political options that are foreign to him, he feels that his own have let him down.

In short, how can citizens trust politics if electoral commitments are not usually kept, nor are they focused on the real demands and needs of citizens?

Carmen Domingo

is a writer.

Her latest book is

(Akal).

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