Julio Cobos: elephant in the room
President Fernández gathered together more than 100 members of Congress to take stock about the recent political setback. Although VP Julio Cobos created the problem, his "no" vote was never mentioned. I have yet to hear her mention his name or refer to him at all.
Cobos, meanwhile, says he wants to meet with her and that "here there don't have to be winners and losers, here we can all be strengthened by the experience." This sounded amazingly Oprah-like for the vice president of a large country. His overall message was that they needed to have a nice big group hug and move on.
2 comments:
Dear Mr. Weeks: I don't think you will be able to understand Argentine's politics or politicians unless you study the whole of it and you come here to live and feel the way Argentine people do. This is impossible to rationalize in terms of any political theory. This is out of this world. You should come and live here for a while and then, maybe, after having a lot of mates (a traditional drink) with Argentine people, you might glimpse something of this crazy world of Argentina.
Dear Miriam: I am a second-generation Argentine (my father was born in Rosario), and I have much family there. As an outsider with an insider's perspective, my belief is that views such as yours are exactly part of the problem. Romantic notions that Argentina's problems are uniquely Argentine and that one must be Argentine to understand--let alone solve--these problems is a tango that is now quite old and tired.
All countries have problems that are uniquely theirs. It is time for Argentina to grow up as a nation and quit making excuses for its lack of progress. I believe that Cobos's actions the other day went a long way towards waking Argentina out of its prolonged adolescence, and that it should be viewed this way by the Argentine street, regardless of politics.
I have no doubt that Cobos had his own agenda in doing what he did (a politician is a politician, all over the world). But nonetheless, his action reinforced democratic institutions and the idea of checks and balances. This is the progress of which I speak.
Con respeto, y saludos de los EEUU.
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