IT’S THE REPUBLIC, STUPID!

In these depressing days, when everyone (me included) is holding his/ her head in his/her hands while contemplating the sum of unforced errors and the lousy communications policy in which our government indulges, it struck me to paraphrase the slogan “The economy, stupid,” widely used in the 1992 US presidential campaign.

Why “The Republic, stupid!”? Because by so much looking at the trees we may not be seeing the wood. You see, we are so hypnotised by the negatives that we are not visualising the positives, above all that after years of the creeping destruction of our institutions we have, imperfectly of course, regained the republic.The sole fact that government and opposition have the same opportunities to express themselves in the official and private media as never before is proof of this. But, of course, there are any amount of other factors which confirm that our institutions are alive if, admittedly, not very well. It is these items that we should contemp late every now and then, so as not to lose our sleep nor our spirit. What I am trying to get at is that, in the next general elections, it is essential that, before casting your vote, you thoroughly consider the republican credentials of your candidate. Because the heart of the matter is that Argentina should never again fall into undemocratic practices. This is, by a long shot, the main issue!

Harry Ingham City