Perfecting Democracy

I'm taking a moment between all the rock and roll to discuss something a little more trivial: politics. (Hilarious! Nobody in 2012 has ever made light of politics. Where do I pick up my Nobel Prize for jokes?) I followed the American presidential elections with a mix of hope and disgust. Not all the disgust was levelled at Romney, btw. Obama has been a disappointment on so many levels, from financial reform to human rights, that he only deserved to lose less than the Republicans. But after the rape comments (really guys?) and the blatant soullessness of the GOP, I woke up relieved to find out he'd won a second term. Now I can go back to criticising him.
It's election time here in Catalunya, with people going to the polls on Sunday. At the heart of the campaign is a separatist movement that has long smouldered in the region and has burst into flames with the crisis and the conservative government running Spain. I'm mildly against Catalan independence, in that it seems many here view it as a panacea to cure all our ills. This disregards the fact that an independent Catalunya would not be the socialist utopia of these hippies' dreams, but another ineptly mismanaged free-market economy circling the drain of Europe. Take the current president, and leader of the separatist charge: Artur Mas. An opportunistic right-wing hack who only discovered his separatist passion in September when a million and a half people marched through Barcelona in support of the cause, his prior accomplishment was pushing for the creation of Eurovegas. This giant gambling complex helmed by Sheldon Addison (of Sarah Silverman fame) was to be a tourist trap that disregarded labour and environmental laws with the blessing of local government. It was such a terrible idea that I was sure it would happen. That Mas failed to secure the deal, losing out to Madrid, provided the minor relief of knowing that he is too incompetent to be sufficiently corrupt. And this man wants to lead Europe's newest nation.
He is not alone, nor even the worst. Spain has either completely misunderstood or brilliantly perfected democracy. One votes for a despot who then proceeds to act out at will while the populace grumble but take no action. Sure, that happens everywhere, but here they don't even bother to hide it. This month, the mayor of Madrid took off to a spa in Portugal the day after a tragedy at a stadium left several young people dead. Imagine Bloomberg, or even Giuliani, doing that. A politician in Valencia has won the lottery multiple times. Buying winning lottery tickets is a common money laundering trick, but he just claims to be improbably lucky, and nobody investigates. His daughter, a congresswoman for the ruling People's Party (a strange name for a right-wing group, but oh well) was filmed literally saying "Fuck them" about those most effected by recent budget cuts. (read: the poor.) These people put Blagojevich to shame. And let's talk about the plastic surgery. So much plastic surgery. The Mayor of Marbella was arrested at her home, with bags of money in her freezer, while recovering from plastic surgery. There are more duck lips and fake tits in parliament than at the AVN awards.

This is the PP (ie pro-Madrid) candidate vying to lead Catalunya. How many levels of artifice are there when you photoshop over the collagen lips to try to make her seem more human? (Two. There are two levels. Surgery and Photoshop. I should also get the Nobel Prize for counting.)
Anyway, it seems as if the ruling party will not achieve an absolute majority and thus nothing will change. At least it's provided a few weeks of distraction from skyrocketing unemployment and crumbling currency.
Well, I'm off to see Bat for Lashes tonight, so tomorrow I will bring you something of substance. (Zing, politics! Zing!)