Do you have to go vote?

I belong to the first generation of Catalans born with democracy embedded in their cradle. When as a teenager I dared to flirt with abstentionism, a voice from the underground would always rise at home with a certain tone of emotional blackmail, reminding me of the sacrifices our elders perpetrated so that I could insert an envelope into the ballot box (moralizing extortion, we know, is a deficit that hangs from your armpit simply by being alive, like original sin or the family book); that if sprints in front of the grays, that if Franco on horseback and on a scooter, that if we were forced to speak Catalan in secret... you know the whole litany by heart. When I tried to escape the ballot boxes, my father, to whom I will always be grateful for a much more prosaic spirit than the common of my tribe, summed it up with a certain grace: "go vote, kid, not being able to do it is a pain in the ass and much more boring than you think."

I think now that also, as must happen to many readers,abstentionism may be on our mindsand not only because the pandemic environment is hardly conducive to mixing with other bipeds in a polling station, but above all because the Catalan voter, especially the pro-independence one, is heading towards 14-F with the slowness of renewing their deputy's card tothe worst generation of politicians that democratic history has contemplated, a pleiad of small-time people who have not only systematically and manifestly breached all commitments made to voters in previous elections but, far from making us believe they could command a state, have proven incapable of managing a simple autonomy castrated by Article 155. February 14th causes apathy, I would even say it produces a strange mix of laziness and anger in us, especially in those who no longer have any stomach capacity left for false promises.

February 14th causes apathy, I would even say it produces a strange mix of laziness and anger in us

The pro-independence blackmail machine will never stop, and in the coming weeks, the country's rulers will tell you, with less and less art for dissimulation, that you must go vote as a matter of the lesser evil; regional politics doesn't go much beyond "if you don't go, they come back" and both convergents and republicans (besides promising dialogue tables that go nowhere, historical financing systems that don't fill the coffers, and returns to the DUI that are dead letters) will limit themselves to telling you that not trusting them is normal, but that the option of the Spanish nationalist parties is even worse. Notice how their ambition is at rock bottom that they have bought into Pedro Sánchez's "Illa effect" nonsense, which is how the electoral emergence in Catalonia of Europe's worst white-coat minister is known.

A country where Salvador Illa can be a game-changer for anything imaginable inspires little enthusiasm, that is undeniable, but a political class that until four days ago promised to reach Ithaca and now sees in Salvador Illa, with his clam-like charisma and his mournful posture, a formidable electoral threat, produces even less joy. But precisely now, now that it's such a pain and you'd rather shoot sausages at the political class or, directly, go out and burn ministries, now is the best time to vote, be it February 14th or as soon as someone puts a ballot box a few minutes from home. To vote, no moral blackmail is needed, nor appealing to the sacrifice of the deceased, nor invoking the dictator: democracy is the best political system of representation there has been and ever will be, and it is precisely because it is perfectible and as imperfect as humans, and it must be loved precisely because it is an ideal that is always in the process of being realized.

Democracy is the best political system of representation there has been and ever will be, and it is precisely because it is perfectible and as imperfect as humans are

If you want to protest, there is no better way to do it than by going out to vote. Before engaging in compulsive complaining and believing yourself a Narcissus who makes himself interesting by simply staying home, go out and vote. Because voting, with clothespins on your nose, with a plug in your ass, or even with a blindfold on your face,it is an act of participation and expression that always ends up being happy, no matter how bitter it may be. Are you still pissed off about the website that wasn't operational for five minutes, dear self-employed colleague? Well, hurry up and vote. Does it make you anxious that a force of nature like Alba Vergés could end up working as a counselor? Then fly to vote. Do you piss yourself laughing when Borràs claims she is a daughter of 1-O and that with her, yes-we-will reach the end? Then sprint to vote. Blank, null, or upside down, but vote.

There is no system, I insist, that resembles human nature more than this thing called democracy. With all its flaws, voting has managed to unleash the best inventions devised by human beings and has been the cornerstone of our best projects. Voting does not fully legitimize the current party system, nor the scarce participatory porosity of our parliamentary Capernaum, much less does it imply that you stamp the seal of approval on the worst group of political amateurs that Catalonia has had to suffer in its entire history. Voting is a hymn to an imperfect system that is not a lesser evil, but a greater good, because a series of men and women adding their opinion is already a value in itself, even if the people can err. If you are bored, you also have to go vote, because boredom and the lack of perspective of a world without democratic participation is terrifying, believe me.

Boredom and the lack of perspective of a world without democratic participation is terrifying

If you want quality boredom, go out and vote. And yes, better generations of politicians will come, which is not difficult at all. And yes, if we are demanding, we will have leaders with a much less sharp sense of cynicism and nerve and a better virtue for management. But abstaining is like returning to capricious adolescence and does not help in any way to the fulfillment of your desires.We will go to vote, even if it's just to show the damn virus that this going for a stroll still doesn't scare us. Go vote, fellow citizen, even if only to see the dumbfounded face of the poor man who got the lucky break of working at a polling station, God rest his soul. Find your reasons, and the more imperfect the better, but move your ass, becausevoting and complaining are among the best things men and women have invented. It also makes me lazier than ever, and I'm angrier than ever, but precisely for that reason I need as many ballot boxes as possible.