Journal Journal: The night Politics were the most important thing on TV
Last night, people all over Argentina followed a Senate session, of all things, with as much interest as if it were the final match of a soccer World Cup. The result was a tie; but this time it wasn't against some other country's soccer team, it was a tie against itself. The government had been too arrogant for several months, advertising their tax plan as the only way, and attacking everybody who disagreed as rebels who wanted to overthrow the government; and it all came down to the vice president of the nation to decide what kind of future the country would have: politics as usual, putting the party line over millions of people, or following his convinctions, making his job a lot harder on itself and opening himself to be called a traitor for not standing by the government's decision.
With any other government I've known in this country, with any other person in that chair, the results would have been predictable: party politics over the interests of the people. The pressure and tension in the senate chamber could be felt all over the country. He was compared to Judas even before his vote was needed, and even his call to dialog was taken as a betrayal. He could have taken the easy way out, and everybody in this country would have thought it was politics as usual; argentines haven't felt identified by anyone in the government in a long time.
But he said no. He voted to ditch the resolution his own government had put forth, and called for a new one that could be approved by the senate by its own merit, and not just because the President said so.
As an argentine, this is a very weird feeling. Just two months ago, very few people even knew who the vice president was; my own mother said, "we have a vice president?!" when he started to show his face around. We're used to the vice president to be a puppet of the president, or to not even be there at all.
Predictably, a lot of people think he'll be the next President. I'm not so sure about that. There are still three and a half years left of this government, and a lot of things can change. However, what I do know, is that for the first time ever, there is a politician out there that argentines actually like, rather than tolerate; someone that maybe, someday will be voted into the office for his own merits, and not just because he's the lesser of several evils.
With any other government I've known in this country, with any other person in that chair, the results would have been predictable: party politics over the interests of the people. The pressure and tension in the senate chamber could be felt all over the country. He was compared to Judas even before his vote was needed, and even his call to dialog was taken as a betrayal. He could have taken the easy way out, and everybody in this country would have thought it was politics as usual; argentines haven't felt identified by anyone in the government in a long time.
But he said no. He voted to ditch the resolution his own government had put forth, and called for a new one that could be approved by the senate by its own merit, and not just because the President said so.
As an argentine, this is a very weird feeling. Just two months ago, very few people even knew who the vice president was; my own mother said, "we have a vice president?!" when he started to show his face around. We're used to the vice president to be a puppet of the president, or to not even be there at all.
Predictably, a lot of people think he'll be the next President. I'm not so sure about that. There are still three and a half years left of this government, and a lot of things can change. However, what I do know, is that for the first time ever, there is a politician out there that argentines actually like, rather than tolerate; someone that maybe, someday will be voted into the office for his own merits, and not just because he's the lesser of several evils.
