Given the current rules of the game, the fleeting emergence of campaigns such as the Morris cat, which discourage voting and are disguised as somehow boosters of citizen\u2019s awareness, are only giving an advantage to those with greater electoral mobilization.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He] possesses (Calvin) Coolidge\u2019s low-key manner, (John) Kennedy\u2019s animal magnetism and (Abraham) Lincoln\u2019s honesty\u201d. No, this is not the description made by former Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, to Time magazine, when asked to describe President Pe\u00f1a Nieto. It\u2019s actually a quote from a presentation of Eleanor Mondale \u2013 daughter of former U.S. Vice-President, Walter Mondale \u2013 from which she considered the best Presidential candidate in her country that year: Morris, The Cat.<\/p>\n
Indeed, that was the original Morris (at least a subsequent version that evolved from the first kitten that, using that name, has been the image of the catfood brand 9 Lives since the 1970s). As part of an advertising campaign with no political end in sight, Morris \u201cran for President\u201d under the Finicky Party, with a slogan that incited cats to always ask for the best, for that purpose they should demand 9Foods, the catfood \u201cwith real meat\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is well known that the Morris candidacy to the Xalapa municipal Presidency has impressed both in Mexico and abroad. Even though it is impossible not to acknowledge how viral this phenomenon has become, particularly regarding social networks \u2013 as at June 17th, Morris has about 126 thousand Facebook likes (less than half of that number are Xalapa residents, in the words of the campaign\u2019s creators) \u2013 it is worth asking: how big is this so-called citizen\u2019s initiative?<\/p>\n
It should be noted that the idea of nominating a non-human candidate for a public charge is hardly a new fact. One of the first cases in history was the alleged appointment of Emperor Caligula\u2019s horse, Incitatus, as consul. Going beyond the theory of a sign of madness from the Roman Emperor, revisionist historians have proposed that the aforementioned act was a mockery intended to prove that his horse had greater governance abilities than the rest of the members of the Senate. A similar feeling was created by the Morris Xalapensis in a certain section of the population, mocking this unfortunate \u2013 though deserved in several cases – generalization of the Mexican politicians: idle, cheating, among several other negative descriptions.<\/p>\n
Closer to our time, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago, the countercultural movement YIP (Youth International Party), whose members were self-proclaimed \u2018yippies\u2019 (a radical step further from the \u2018hippies\u2019) intended to nominate Pigasus, the Immortal Pig, for the Presidency of the United States. The yippie campaign pledge was: \u201cThey (the system) nominate a President and he eats the people. We nominate a President and the people eat him\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yippie leaders caused some riots outside the venue in which the Democrat event was held and faced a trial for conspiracy charges during the Nixon administration. All of them were absolved. One of the most radical members, Jerry Rubin, who freed the pig in the middle of a crowd so it could \u201csworn in as candidate\u201d had a peculiar outcome. Sick of (according to him) countercultural excesses (sex, drugs and so on), he decided to become an entrepreneur and investor of nature products (legal ones, of course). The wealth amounted in the next two decades made him a multimillionaire, going from yippie to yuppie. Rubin stated: \u201ccreation of wealth is the true American revolution. What is needed is capital infusion in the poorest zones in the country\u201d. That way, as it has happened in many cases throughout the world, a passionate \u201canti-system\u201d activist turned into a successful \u201csystem\u201d businessman. There\u2019s a lot of that in the Morris Xalapensis case.<\/p>\n
The overwhelmingly fraying harangue of \u201cDo not vote for a politician\u201d \u2013 rephrased in different contexts \u2013 still produces a great effect given the short memory of most of the electorate. A little more than a decade ago, the political franchise founded by Jorge Gonz\u00e1lez Torres based its proselytism on the slogan \u201cDon\u2019t vote for a politician, vote for an ecologist!\u201d. Nowadays Mexico has a consolidated Green Party, though \u201csomehow weak\u201d in its ecological vein.<\/p>\n
Maybe the Morris Xalapensis creators do not intend to become a political party but they do have the enormous potential of giving \u2013 voluntarily or involuntarily \u2013 an additional boost to the misunderstood (to say the least) democratic transition. It is true, political parties have rightfully gained a terrible reputation with shameful corruption stories, nepotism at the expense of State resources, arrogance, manipulating population needs with electoral aims and, let it be said, citizens\u2019 ambitions, power abuses and most serious of it all, letting down those who see them as legitimate means of representation. Nevertheless, as long as the party system does not face a thorough rethinking, even beyond improving the delicate concept of citizens\u2019 candidacies \u2013 which constitute another long story to tell regarding their relevance – the aforementioned organizations will continue, as mandated by law, \u201ccalling the shots\u201d.<\/p>\n
By the way, speaking of law, the rumors of an eventual annulment of the Xalapa election via a massive voting for Morris Xalapensis, are unfounded. Even if 99 percent of the Xalapa electorate voted for the cat \u2013 which would count as a vote for \u201cunregistered candidates\u201d, not as invalid ballots \u2013 or just cancelled out their votes, one of the candidates would assure his or her victory with a single ballot. According to the 135th article of Ignacio de la Llave\u2019s Veracruz Electoral Code, \u201cthe annulment of an election may only be declared when the causes invoked are explicitly stated in [the] Code [\u2026]\u201d. Among the grounds for invalidity, stated in the Fifth Book, Second Title, First Chapter of the aforementioned regulation, the contabilization of a certain percentage of votes for non-registered candidates (such as Morris Xalapensis) or invalid ballots, are not among them.<\/p>\n
The only case in which Xalapa would not have a winner in the July 7th elections is if registered candidates acquire the \u201cMilhouse-Simpson Syndrome\u201d. In the famous animated American sitcom The Simpsons, Bart Simpson loses the election of classroom chief because neither him nor his best friend Milhouse go to the polls, unlike his rival Martin Prince and his campaign coordinator. Prince\u2019s victory by two votes against zero reflects in an absurd manner what happens when there\u2019s an extremely indifferent electorate against a barely sufficient mobilization \u201capparatus\u201d, barely enough to obtain the ultimate goal in a formal democracy: to win following the rules of the game.<\/p>\n
Now, even if these rules are completely followed, it does depend on citizens\u2019 active participation. The achievements of organized civil society are remarkable, specially in recent years, when law is not fully on its side.\u00a0 Civic powers is undeniable. The problem is we remember this power only on election time, right when, paradoxically, due to the system structure, is the moment when we less can actually do something about. Was our advocate Morris Xalapensis napping when the legislative discussion regarding citizen candidacies occurred?<\/p>\n
Given the current rules of the game, the fleeting emergence of campaigns such as the Morris cat, which discourage voting and are disguised as somehow boosters of citizen\u2019s awareness, are only giving an advantage to those with greater electoral mobilization. This can be expressed with the so-called \u201cpartisan hard vote\u201d or in the simple and coarse co-option of the vote by using taxpayers\u2019 resources.<\/p>\n
Among the collateral effects of publicity against partisan voting or even favoring vote due to the scarce possibilities of actually winning, the triumph of the least wanted candidate by the \u201calternative electors\u201d may be an option in the table. For instance, in 2000, there were surely many Ralph Nader voters who would\u2019ve rather given his or her vote in Florida to Al Gore so he would\u2019ve beaten George W. Bush in the disputed Presidential election (to this day, many people throughout the world still regret that result). The phrase \u201cevery vote counts\u201d is not a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n
As a conclusion, the future of Morris, the cat, is uncertain. What is most likely is that, like a good cat, once it has satisfied its need for attention, it will return to sleep indifferent, carefree and selfishly. It\u2019s irrelevant whether it is a cat, a donkey or a pig: something ridicule will end in a ridicule manner. \u201cActions\u201d is a highly misunderstood word. In politics, acting is not designing a campaign in order to sell t-shirts, spread witty images or coming up with a catchphrase or song. That may do well with chips or soda salesmen (and Mexico has already experienced that those individuals are not the best to rule a country).<\/p>\n
Political actions are to be made everyday, they imply being aware of the decisions made by those who govern us, not only when they are publicly mocked for their scandals or when they are longing for our attention in order to assure a vote. However, the most important is to enhance and practice a civic culture that is essential in the consolidation of a true democracy, issued by exercising responsible civic actions. In other words, we will be closer to the first Morris, the one from the catfood adverts, promoting a fussy democracy, full of complaints towards politicians but underpinned in the sloppiness of aimless meows.<\/p>\n
Antonio De la Cuesta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Given the current rules of the game, the fleeting emergence of
\ncampaigns such as the Morris cat, which discourage voting and are
\ndisguised as somehow boosters of citizen\u2019s awareness, are only giving
\nan advantage to those with greater electoral mobilization.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He] possesses (Calvin) Coolidge\u2019s low-key manner, (John) Kennedy\u2019s
\nanimal magnetism and (Abraham) Lincoln\u2019s honesty\u201d. No, this is not the
\ndescription made by former Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, to
\nTime magazine, when asked to describe President Pe\u00f1a Nieto. It\u2019s
\nactually a quote from a presentation of Eleanor Mondale \u2013 daughter of
\nformer U.S. Vice-President, Walter Mondale \u2013 from which she considered
\nthe best Presidential candidate in her country that year: Morris, The
\nCat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-3358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","tag-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4110,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3358\/revisions\/4110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}