Being political

 I was never a political kind of guy, haven't voted in many years, don't see the point of voting in people one doesn't believe in and don't trust. 

One might argue that the voting process has been one of struggle and of personal sacrifices. 

Living in modern times, we tend to take out the importance of many things that are basic rights and obligations as citizens and become stagnant and stop doing things that are inconvenient or could affect our Sunday brunches. 

The process of voting is time-consuming and should be changed to make it easier to vote. Nowadays we have so many things that can be done using our phones and our pcs, some systems can be applied to ensure the safety of voting our representatives. If we can present our taxes online, why can't we vote online?

But I digress. My point today is about the distrust of the political community and their agendas. 

Over the years, we've seen an increase of right-wing movements crawling up in the political theater and dragging many people into their discourse. They are using different tactics to lure people and make us believe that they want the best for us and that their patriotic values are beneficial for the countries' interests and citizens. 

Make no mistake, there is no shame in being a patriot. Still, when it's juggled and played as an argument to outcast a segment of the population, to discriminate, creating a sense of distrust in immigrants and lower social layers, xenophobic and racist tendencies, that is wrong, that should not happen in a global society where integration and tolerance should be the premise. 

The rise of these right-wing movements occur because of the disgraceful role that more liberal parties have played in politics while they govern. 

When I arrived in Spain in 1999, the right-wing party "Partido Popular" was ruling. They had a very corporative agenda. At the time, I thought they were hardcore because publicly, they showed strength and cohesion. However, the following years were challenging for the party. ETA, the armed leftist and separatist group, was still very active and attacking key targets, either infrastructures or assassinations of politicians or law enforcement agents. Their ruling's culmination ended on the eve of the general elections in March 2004 when a group of terrorists placed explosives inside Madrid's commuting trains and detonated them and killed 193 people and injuring roughly more than 2000. The government initially attributed this attack to the separatist bask group ETA, but after investigating further, it became clearer that ETA had nothing to do with this attack. The handling of this tragedy, so close to the elections, proved catastrophic to the ruling government, and people made their decision not to trust the Partido Popular for another term. 

The Social Party took over, and 4 years of left-wing ruling started. 

After a few years, many scandals starting to come out to public knowledge. Reportings about briberies and public funds used in injecting millions of euros into private banking were associated with members of the Partido Popular party occupying high profile positions inside those corporations.

Politicians have concentrated their efforts and resources on one thing and one thing only, personal profit, conceding to the different economic lobbyists and bailing the systems that have proven to be flawed and do not have the citizens' needs top of their priorities. This system is flawed, creating a huge void in society, destroying thousands of jobs. The cliche "the rich keep getting richer, and the poor poorer" is accurate and more so. These institutions and politicians must be called out and be accountable for their crimes to society. These so-called politicians supposed to serve the public are only serving themselves, and their foes and people are suffering the consequences of these actions. 

What happened in the US these past 4 years was a slap in the face of the established political trend that for many years covertly served the interests of wall street and the military-industrial complex. Spreading fear and lies to justify their "democratic" agendas and fight wars in the name of democracy and Western society's values. 

People are tired, some segments of the independent media are waking up and want us to wake up, but it's still not enough.

We eager for "normal," but "normal" is not what we think it is. If "normal" is living in a bubble, ignoring poverty and injustice, and only thinking about oneself, then that's wrong. If you believe normal is being able to go out on a Sunday for brunch while millions of people are starving and don't have a job and don't have the basic needs covered, then that's wrong! 

This pandemic is showing us how wrong we have been for so many years. It's putting things in order whether we like it or not. 

We need to start making politicians accountable for their actions. We need to be accountable for our decisions. 

Like myself,  I've lived for many years in this shadow of normalcy, but I was wrong, and now I'm starting to see things differently and more critically. 

Maybe it has to do with age or experiences in life, but this is how I see reality now.