It has its logic the unforeseen reappearance of the testimonial candidates, these votes of votes who would not think of the benches or councils in which the voters would like to sit them. It happens that partisan bosses are not easy for them to find presentable people who are willing to risk the political arena and, if they do well, obey their sponsors without gutting. For understandable reasons, the tempted ones are scarce to join a “caste” whose current reputation could hardly be worse, since both here and in the rest of the world many have become accustomed to taking politics by an job suitable only for corrupt hypocrites resolved to surround themselves with servile mediocrities that could not dream of shadowing them.
Are Argentine politicians worse than their equivalents from other countries? Judging by the results of their collective efforts, when it comes to administering the places that supposedly govern are not among the most effective, but one could argue that the mere fact that, despite their repeated failures, they have managed to stay in power and prosper means that they are much more cunning than most of their foreign counterparts. If those who assure us that the best campaign is a good management, the formation of the national political class would be very different from what it is effectively but, unfortunately, it is a lie or, in some cases, an expression of desires are assured.
Anyway, Argentina is not the only country in which it is common to speak badly of politics professionals and Javier Milei is the first to be reached with almost all local specimens. In its particular way, the scourge of “La Casta” is faithful to a tradition that goes back at least two and a half millennia, when the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes was fiercely mocked from the pretensions of the demagogues of his time, individuals who, of course, had much in common with the most notorious of the modern world. If between us, Aristophanes would have fun parodying the picturesque abusive dialect that Milei has invented to denigrate those who angry. He says he will stop using it, but few believe that the president is about to change skin.
Carlos Menem sought to solve the capital problem posed by the discredit of an activity that is fundamental for democracy incorporating celebrities from sport such as Carlos Reutemann and entertainment as Ortega Palito. Both reached very important positions in the national ladder, although they were not as successful as another outsider that he had not enjoyed the support of the government on duty: the economist and television character Milei. However, while the contribution of Reutemann and Ortega to the political class is legitimate, Milei’s has been ambiguous; Thanks to him, the debates about the economy have become much more rational and realistic than they were before, but because of their way of acting and expressing themselves, nothing good has contributed to the country’s culture in the broadest sense of the word.
In addition to being a symptom of degenerative atrophy of a “caste” that resists being revived by a new blood infusion, the current proliferation of testimonial candidates is due to the fear of the leaders to lose control over their alleged subordinates. Competitive and selfish by nature, they want all powerful legislators or councilors to automatically submit to their leadership and that properly paid for the services that believe they have lent them, which is why they like the sheets and indefinite reelections that help them cling to power.
Peronists are not the only ones who think so. When it is a matter of their own place in the world, all powerful politicians, including those who are proud of their progressive positions, are very thorough. They tend to distrust more of their adherents than their rivals from other groups or ideological currents. After reaching the Presidency of the Republic, the radical Raúl Alfonsín insisted that the legislative benches would have to belong to the parties, not to the men and women of flesh and blood that occupied them. The same as one of his successors, Néstor Kirchner, the restorer of democracy before partisan discipline, that is, the authority of the boss, to the freedom of conscience of the chosen representatives of the people.
Although at this point the Peronist leaders, beginning with the Kirchnerists, can only understand that unless they renew their offer they will await a depressing future, they are so determined to cling to what is already conquered that they resist allowing them to enter into organizations that handle people who could try to replace them. They bet that voters collaborate by privileging their tribal loyalties or ideological prejudices, overlooking that testimonial candidates are as fraudulent as they would be if they were created by artificial intelligence.
Although it is possible that the trick works, it is also necessary to give rise to an unprecedented level of absenteeism. After all, it does not make much sense to vote for ghosts that, as soon as the dark room closes, they will vain. It would not surprise much, then, that just fifty percent of Buenos Aires electorate would give the work of voting in September and October, but it would be unlikely that the silent rebellion thus supposed to affect the conduct of those responsible for provoking it.
It was largely thanks to the contempt that so many feel for almost all members of the local political class that Milei triumphed in the 2023 elections, but it would seem that since then has very little changed. Although freedom progresses it has opened the doors to enter a litter of new recruits, they resemble those of previous promotions and soon adopted the least recommended customs of those who already were.
It may, as in all countries, “the caste” is evolving, but it does not mean that it is improving. On the contrary, judging by the way of behaving of the most fanatized libertarians, it is becoming more unfriendly than it was when their manifest deficiencies allowed the emergence of the fiery economist. Would it help Milei take more interest in the suitability of his henchmen? It is unlikely; Like so many others, what the president and his sister Karina ask them is blind loyalty. They do not provide the impression of believing in meritocracy.
While it is unfair to suppose, as the Savoyan Joseph de Maistre ruled, that each nation has the government that deserves, that is not to say the same of the political class in democratic societies. Bad that many weigh, the one that Argentina effectively dominates is the product of the popular vote and could be changed if the electorate wanted it although, of course, doing so would not be so easy due to the resistance of its current members to reforms of the prevailing system that could cause headaches. For obvious reasons, they do not like proposals aimed at making the mandatory the unique ballot everywhere, institutionalizing the clean file and, perhaps, to promote a scheme of uninominal constituencies that would serve to reduce the gap that today separates the electorate from the “caste”.
From the point of view of populist qualified, all government institutions should be in the hands of people who share the mentality of the common man. They insinuate that it is antidemocratic to demand that they have specialized knowledge. They overlook that today no society can function properly unless those in charge of managing it have capacities that only a reduced minority will be able to acquire.
A couple of years ago, it seemed that the bulk of citizenship had come to the conclusion that he had made a serious mistake voting again and again in favor of individuals who shared their own feeling but lacked the necessary qualities to govern well.
On other occasions, the loss of faith in the political class gave rise to a series of pretended “military solutions” that would have increasingly disastrous consequences. Then there would come a brief stage in which many chanted “that they all leave”; For a while, politicians had to hide, but soon they returned to their old positions without feeling forced to change anything.
Well, bad, an authentic renewal of the political class would have to be preceded by a cultural revolution that would affect the thought of both the elites that, let’s not forget, for years they allowed themselves to be coatus by variants of populism, as well as in that of barely literate products of a poor educational system that will decide the electoral results in the overpoblated bone conurbation similar. Something like this may be underway, but there is no guarantee that one day the country manages to provide a political class that really deserves the respect of the supposedly sovereign people.
