Forum Post: Were The Latest Greek Election Results Rigged?
Posted 12 years ago on June 18, 2012, 9:51 a.m. EST by vvv0617
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Whither Greece After the Election? Why Do They Stay on a Doomed Course?
Summary: Greece had its election. The pro-austerity party won, despite their policy’s lack of success — and lack of historical or theoretical foundation (it’s contrary to basic economics). Despite the applause in the banker-dominated news media, it’s unlikely to work, and every month of delay only makes Greece weaker — less able to well-manage an exit from the EMU. Today we ask why Greece’s leaders stay with a failed, perhaps terminal if continued, policy?
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The majority still voted against austerity. Part of the problem is the Greek masses still think they can have a fair deal inside the Euro and they can't. The Euro is set up to benefit Germany and keep the less developed countries like Greece the way they are. The left socialists bottom line was to stay in the Eurozone, but (try) to get a better deal. Starting with that premise the argument becomes what party can get the best deal from the Germans. The conservatives barely got a plurality that said they can get a better deal than a bunch of radicals who don't want to make the final break. Only the Communists and the outright fascist Golden Dawn actually said they want to dump the Euro.
In the Greek electoral system the party that comes in first (not meaning the majority as there are several parties) gets fifty extra parliamentary seats.
If people over sixty five were barred from voting the left socialists would have swamped the Parliament. The oldsters are very frightened of losing the little they have so went for the devil they know.
Anyhow, the bailout is not going to fix the facts that 50 percent of Greek youth are unemployed, many more underemployed, that the Gross Domestic Product is shrinking at six percent per year or that a majority still is against the austerity deal. Watch the streets of Athens. It ain't over.
Democracy's a bitch, ain't it?
bourgeois republics are designed to preserve bourgeois power. When they falter in that task they are dumped. France, Turkey and Greece have all experienced military rule since WWII as of course Spain and Portugal which had fascist dictators. )All supported by the US of A)
it seems unlikely they will be able to form a government
I don't know. What I do know is that they can't solve the problem. The people will rise up again and again.
Sure it was rigged. Why would so many people hit the streets to protest the austerity that has beaten them up so badly, only to vote FOR it at the polls?
"It's not the vote that counts. It's who counts the votes." - Josef Stalin
Same in the US !!!! You only have the 'illusion' of choice.
because tomorrow is becoming unpredictable?
money is the simplest way to consoldate power, people like simple things
Every year Americans choose the 2 failing parties and the 2 corporate whores for the nominees, dems and repubs... Repubs this year chose Romney over Gary Johnson. And in 2008 dems chose Obama over Dennis Kucinich. In 2004 they chose Bush and Kerry over Nader. The list goes on and on.
Sadly most people buy more into talking points and tv time than voting records.
We're seeing the same crap in Greece. People fear change. I call people with that kind of mind set Cyphers.
This was the choice people had (similar to what we face)
Choose to say to hell with it all, and go into total free fall collapse, but know you have a bright future down hte road.
Go with the bankers, and experience a little pain, but still get to keep doing basically what you have been doing.
We were faced with a similar choice. We decided to bail out the banks.
Probably. It happens in US.
Greek recession is deepening:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_26/06/2012_449172
Greece alone and broke, again:
http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120624/NEWS0107/206240303/
Shock Doctrine Backfires in Greece by Constantinos Dimoulas
http://occupywallst.org/forum/shock-doctrine-backfires-in-greece-by-constantinos/
"despite their policy's lack of success" seems like a strange phrase to use in this context. The Greek economic drama is not yet over. Austerity measures are all about ceasing to spend more money than is available to spend. Did you imagine that Greece's problems were going to just instantly vanish after starting austerity measures?
If you're broke and in foreclosure and your bank accounts are overdrawn and you're at your credit limit, would you start buying lobster and filet mignon after going without lobster and filet mignon for a few months, because it "didn't work"? Would you give up on spending within your means if it didn't instantly make everything better?
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If non austerity is such a good idea, why don't the Greeks just drop out of the union and spend all the money they want on whatever they want? Why do they even need to have the Germans give them money?
They just need to default, dump the Euro, and get it over with... then figure out how to live within their means.
They need Germans to give them money because they need it to service their debt... no debt, problem solved..
Do you understand the freefall that would put the Greece economy in?
at least, it's warm enough to live outside
haha
a sort of sun belt temperate latitude like California except on islands
Florida is further south
NPR had a good discussion about this last week. They compared it to the lesser of two evils. Most of their pundits agreed leaving the EuroZone would have been devastating to the Country. Ultimately Greece is better off staying even if it is painful.
I guess that would be why they have decided to try to get their spending under control.
getting spending under control is a lot easier when you don't have to pay billions in debt repayment... waste of money.
Probably should have controlled their spending to begin with. Now, They have no choice. Same choice we have. Control spending now, or have no choice when the chinese demand payment of their loans.
There may have been protests, but it wasn't more than half of the populace. The vote wasn't rigged. They deparately want to stay in the EU as it is providing them a standard of living they can't have if they exited.
it has little to do with a "standard of living",. it is about power and control through indebtedness!
Do you have any clue what the dragma would look like if Greece just decided to bail on the EU, and the interanational markets decided the value of a 100% insolvent nations currency?
They are stuck.
I personally would rather just say fuck it, get it done and over with. But when I suggested that withe the bank bailouts here, everyone said I was nuts.
Yeah, like Iceland? Greece is always free to drop this silly game, and just default on all the imposed debt. The sooner they do, the sooner they can rebuild a new currency. It is inevitable that the economy there will collapse, the austerity and interest payments to foreign banks, only helps the foreign banks,. not the Greeks.
No one can 'get the economy' going with austerity and endless interest payments to greedy loan-sharks.
They have a choice of total collapse, or staying in a down, dragged out recovery.
We were faced with a similar situation in 08. I cant tell you how many people told me I was nuts because I said "Fuck it, let em fail. Lets get it done and over with."
The people here, like the people there, were scared to yank the bandaid off and choose to instead stay in a permanent phase of slow pulling (of the bandaid).
the money is currently in the hands of the few
that won't change if we don't
Here's the rule of thumb; if stuff we don't like gets elected then it's rigged. If stuff we like gets elected then it was a fair election. See?
Demand democracy, and then cry foul when it doesn't go the way you think it should...
it is not really "democracy" if the "votes" are rigged,. now is it?
Do you have some proof that the votes were rigged other than the outcome? Doesn't sound like much evidence to me.