Thursday, April 2, 2009

Speaking of Political Parties, I May Have Found the One for Me...

I got this lead from Vox-Nova, and did some digging on my own, and I think that I may have found the first political party I would ever hit the street for. To bad it is in Spain.

I will continue to do my homework, but this may need to get imported over with the next shipment of rioja.

Here is a striking platform they have put quite straightfowardly: Rechazamos El Aborto Porque Somos de Izquierda (We Reject Abortion Because We Are of the Left). They also are vigorous admirers of John Paul II. In case you are not a Spanish reader, here is a representative of their abortion stance in English, the essay is entitled: Abortion, Euthanasia and Capitalism.

They are the Solidarity Party of Spain. I hope that this is the future of leftism. If so, then, sign me up.

I'll wait and see.

5 comments:

Rocco said...

I'm sure I'd have more than a few reasons to disagree with this party but hey, overall, great. I hate to split hairs but the statement that "we reject abortion because we are of the Left" is a bit backwards don't you think?

samrocha said...

You may, but they would require a new and fresh articulation of the standard American ideal that "life" is rooted in a conservative notion of preservation. And then they would require a great deal of explanation as to why, exactly, we can live our lives the way we do and think we care at all about these things. Tough work.

On the leftist rejection of abortion, I totally disagree. I know many bright leftists, feminists, and Marxists who have the same view. Sadly the popular left in the US has put a gag order on them. Much the like the popular right put a gag order on their influential pro-choicers (Condi, Mrs. Bush, Goldwater, Guliani...).

Rocco said...

You might be misinterpreting me, which is my fault for not being clear. I'm saying that it's backwards to say "we oppose abortion because we are of the left". It should be that they oppose abortion because abortion is evil. They could say "we are of the left because we oppose abortion". But once again, I'm splitting hairs and pretty much wasting your time.

samrocha said...

Gotcha! Yes, if their claim, pure and simple, is that one should oppose oppose abortion because of being a leftist, then, that's a problem. But not backwards. I think either direction cuts some mustard and, depending on which kind of mustard one fancies to cut, either work for what is relevant. But, your insight is that without the basic intuition that life is precious and sacred, none of this is very interesting or important is right on the money.

What I love about this the most is that it upsets nearly everyone's political assumptions in the US status quo. The right hate the idea of leftism being starkly opposed to abortion and the left hates the idea of the leftism being starkly opposed to abortion. As a rough criterion, I have found that when most people you think are rather simple-minded are upset about something, there is something to it.

When will you begin to offer your insight on my fascism series? You do recall that you are my one and only reader, right?

Rocco said...

I could see where there's room on both sides for both takes on the issue.

Enter extended tangent - Abortion is one of the brightest areas that shows why we're such a confused lot of ideologues.

With regard to the American left's warm embrace of abortion, there are several quitely whispered reasons why they have grafted themselves to what seems to hold them down from support from a large block constituents of faith who would traditionally be in their ranks:

The awkward scenarios that motherhood creates for a woman's career promotes the sense of workplace inequity; the forever revolving return of Malthusianism that makes a continously growing number believe (wrongly in my opinion) that breeding breeds poverty and inevitable environmental degradation; that coupled with the fact that population growth necessitates a growing economy (which is difficult to attain in a socialist model) has instilled contempt for multiple-child families; for those who believe the state is to provide for all from cradle to grave, then it's a lot easier for those same proponents to demand that there be less cradles.

The other more prominent and widely spoken argument, the belief that the government has no role in deciding what an individual cannot do in their personal life (under the assumption that the act only involves one individual)is the one you would traditionally think the laissez faire American right would embrace.

Of course compassion and respect for human dignity should be the real motivation for our concerns.


Re: your series, I haven't had a chance to chew on it yet.