Andrew Graham-Yooll On A Decade Of Kirchnerism

[GS_Dirtboy]

I and my family + kids 8 and 13 have participated in all of the marches (for the record, I don't read Clarín on a regular basis). I have wondered what effect people in the street have. What seems to be missing that most other powerful grass-roots movements is a cohesive voice in a figure head. Someone who can speak intelligently, and passionately, on behalf of everyone who is marching. I don't see any credible opposition here. That's my big concern.

 

[Gringoboy]

Yes it's quite something that when you think back to the last three marches (June, Nov and April), the opposition, such as it is were merely squeaks in the background.
I believe that April acted as barometer for these lazy politicians....De Narvaez et al.
You can just picture them walking out with a wet finger in the air checking the wind direction and deciding that maybe now would be a good time to join the bandwagon.
Oh Yogur, let's not lose hope; 30 years is a long time.

 

[French jurist]

Hopefully the fraud in the coming elections can be kept to a minimum, the opposition will have an electoral agreement in place, the kirchneristas will lose control of the Congress, and the present dangers to the democracy can be minimized for the time being.

mhhhh. Except for the alliance Pino-Solanas/Carrio, I really doubt there will be a real & global electoral agreement (Binner has little in common with Narvaez or Macri, etc.). Anyway, we'll know that by august (primaries). I could be wrong though but the opposition offers very little alternative. Narvaez is too much on the right of the political spectrum and can't be elected President anyway in 2015, Lavagna is interesting but lacks a "killer" attitude (politics is not for Teletubbies), Macri is antipathic & also too much on the right, Carrio is interesting but she's too much in an "against"/"no" attitude, Binner has little charisma, Rodriguez Saa has charisma & is interesting but he should change his political ads (remember the last ones, where everything was white and he looked like a salesman selling washing machines, ridiculous), etc.

 

[Yogur griego]

mhhhh. Except for the alliance Pino-Solanas/Carrio, I really doubt there will be a real & global electoral agreement (Binner has little in common with Narvaez or Macri, etc.). Anyway, we'll know that by august (primaries). I could be wrong though but the opposition offers very little alternative. Narvaez is too much on the right of the political spectrum and can't be elected President anyway in 2015, Lavagna is interesting but lacks a "killer" attitude (politics is not for Teletubbies), Macri is antipathic & also too much on the right, Carrio is interesting but she's too much in an "against"/"no" attitude, Binner has little charisma, Rodriguez Saa has charisma & is interesting but he should change his political ads (remember the last ones, where everything was white and he looked like a salesman selling washing machines, ridiculous), etc.

I don't think the actual composition of the opposition really matters at this stage. These are not presidential elections. If there's not going to be any fraud, chances are that Kirchner will just loose enough seats because of public opnion against her, not public enthusiasm for any political alternative.

 

[dennisr]

Who the heck would want to inherit this mess and try and fix it. What politician could possibly sell the measures to fight inflation to the electorate: freeze wages, tighten spending..dah dah dah? Political suicide. Business as usual until all avenues of funding have been exhausted. Total collapse, then and only then do we start over again. No changes on the horizon.

 

[Yogur griego]

Who the heck would want to inherit this mess and try and fix it. What politician could possibly sell the measures to fight inflation to the electorate: freeze wages, tighten spending..dah dah dah? Political suicide. Business as usual until all avenues of funding have been exhausted. Total collapse, then and only then do we start over again. No changes on the horizon.

Yes, another economic collapse is just a matter of time. I think it will still take a while.

 

[Joe]

Even if the opposition got their act together and won what difference would it make? The opposition have their set of economists who think they have the right pixie dust to get the economy going. Pixie Dust = hair brained ideas.

The only hope would be if a ground roots movement took hold to start an anti-corruption party.

 

[Yogur griego]

Even if the opposition got their act together and won what difference would it make? The opposition have their set of economists who think they have the right pixie dust to get the economy going. Pixie Dust = hair brained ideas.

The only hope would be if a ground roots movement took hold to start an anti-corruption party.

At least perhaps they wouldn't be so confrontational and antidemocratic as missy Fernandez de Kirchner. Corruption is one thing, authoritarianism is worse (and invariably leads to even more serious corruption). This is the main reason why I want these lunatics in jail, while I know that in an economic sense, another govenrment would not be necessarily more succesful. But I do think that not constantly scaring away investors would be a great first step.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

At least perhaps they wouldn't be so confrontational and antidemocratic as missy Fernandez de Kirchner. Corruption is one thing, authoritarianism is worse (and invariably leads to even more serious corruption). This is the main reason why I want these lunatics in jail, while I know that in an economic sense, another govenrment would not be necessarily more succesful. But I do think that not constantly scaring away investors would be a great first step.

The problem is that this government, and many if not most of its supporters, view investors as villains intent on stealing everything possible that, by rights, belongs to "the people."

 

[Yogur griego]

The problem is that this government, and many if not most of its supporters, view investors as villains intent on stealing everything possible that, by rights, belongs to "the people."

This mindset is one of the main problems of Latin America and explains why they are getting these Chávez figures all over again. It's not just the morons with power in their hands, but also the millions of useful idiots who can't think critically, and therefore always blindly follow fairy tales, whatever ideological mask these may have. I am not saying this is any better in other parts of the world, but here they have a specifically outstanding talent for applauding demagogues.