Mrs. T. at FoE has posted on the right's gains in Sunday's elections. She suggests that ignoring those reps in parliament will send a message:
When an NPD man started to speak in Dresden, the representatives of all the other parties left the room. And they did the same thing when the DVU’s top candidate began to speak in Potsdam. Here, I think is the proper response to the presence of nazis in a democracy’s parliament. Let no one speak to them; let no one acknowledge them...Democrats of every stripe should make it plain to nazi voters that they have effectively spoilt their ballots.
Will that work?
Posted by Heather at September 20, 2004 09:33 AM
Comments
I have one problem with it. Ignoring those parties means ignoring the people who voted for them. Sure, there are not that many people that voted for them, but party identification in East Germany is not that stable yet. It could send the wrong message and lead to more people supporting the right-wing parties in protest of the behavior of the "established parties". Better way: deal with them and show that they do not have a sound programm, offer logical evidence to contradict any position they hold.
Posted by: Melli at September 20, 2004 09:51 PM
That sounds more like what I was thinking. What Mrs. T. suggests doesn't really seem to me likely to demonstrate that the voters have thrown away their votes, it just sounds childish. Engaging the voters, figuring out why they voted the way they did, sounds more useful, especially if a number of those votes were "protest votes." You should look at the comments of the original post over at FOE...
Posted by: Heather at September 21, 2004 08:05 AM
Also, see this little discussion at Vasili's:
http://revirement.de/weblog/index.php?p=1633&c=1
Posted by: Heather at September 21, 2004 08:38 AM
You cannot threaten voters with something they feel to be already the case.
Posted by: Oliver at September 22, 2004 03:06 AM
Do you mean threaten them with being ignored? I know, I think it's preposterous. That's what made them vote that way in the first place.
Posted by: Heather at September 22, 2004 08:25 AM
Yes, it is like being kicked and then admitting to the attacker that he hit the spot where it hurts most.
Posted by: Oliver at September 23, 2004 03:45 PM