Senator
John McCain and Spain's President José Luis
RodríguezZapatero: Has McCain
snubbed Zapatero …
Does
McCain even know who he is?
El Plural, Spain
Spain's
Conservatives Back McCain's 'Snub' of President Zapatero
"Always ready at a moment's
notice to wrap itself in the flag of our nation and sing the national anthem -
it turns out that when one really has to defend the dignity of the motherland,
this Right of ours goes over to the 'enemy.'"
By Gerardo Rivas
Translated By Douglas Myers Rasmussen and Paula van de Werken
The statement by Republican
candidate for the presidency of the United States, John McCain - in which he
sidesteps committing to a meeting with President José Luis RodríguezZapatero in the event that he wins the election - has
provoked a reaction on our Right which shows only too well, that great
patriotic feeling that the right-wing likes to put on display, that it flashes
over and over again, and that it even claims to have a monopoly on.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
MCCAIN
APPEARS TO SNUB SPAIN PRESIDENT ZAPATERO
Always ready at a moment's
notice to wrap itself in the flag of our nation and sing the national anthem -
albeit in an un-democratic way by using those symbols that are exclusively
theirs, it turns out that when one really has to defend the dignity of the
motherland, this Right of ours goes over to the "enemy" - that's in
quotes - it crouches beneath its "great leader" - even if he isn't
yet the leader - and without mercy attacks the President of our nation
when he, and his country, have been, at a minimum, the victims of contempt.
Fascist-Spanish
dictator Francisco Franco: The Partido Popular, one of the descendents of the party he founded in 1936, seems
to back John McCain's apparent characterization of Spain's Socialist president, as an adversary
of the United States.
[Editor's Note: The Spanish
right's "symbols that are exclusively theirs," likely refers to
General Francisco Franco ,
who was a Hitler ally and who ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1939 to 1975. The right-wing Partido Popular is a descendent of Franco's party that has moderated its
positions and is quite mainstream, having held power
most recently under José MaríaAznar.
Aznar lost the 2005 election to the Socialist Zapataro, after an al-Qaeda terrorist attack on a train in Madrid killed hundreds. After taking power, Zapataro decided to pull all of Spain's troops from Iraq - resulting in a significant cooling of relations
between the Bush and Zapetero governments. That is at
the heart of this controversy involving McCain].
From these statements by John
McCain, in which he avoided (four times!) the journalist's question, it became
clear that he imagined Spain in some undetermined location in Latin America,
and once the correspondent re-oriented the location of Spain in Europe, he went
on repeating - like a broken record - that he would "meet with those leaders
that are our friends, and confront those that are not."
In the best
conservative style [Spain's center-right Partido
Popular] - you can see that the Right-wing has an international way about it,
and that our Right has a PhD cum laude in this - McCain suggests that
we are an enemy country and, in that case, the United States - if this
Republican wins - will take on Zapatero and the
confront the country he leads.
Well then, these statements appear
quite commendable of our Right-wing, considering that President Zapatero has given them cause for the same. And in this
sense, a senior official of the Partido Popular, Mr.
Gustavo de Arístegui - I never know whether or not to
capitalize the "de" in the last names of so many people on the Right
- shows his reproach for the President for his anti-American policies which,
furthermore, "smell outdated," he said. Obviously, Gustavo - there,
now I won't have to worry about the "de" in his last name - is in no
doubt that if Zapatero had said "yes, sir"
to Mr. Bush [in regard to Iraq] - Mr. McCain's fellow Republican - everything
would be different and he would receive us with open arms and with the table
unfolded for holding our boots [in other words, with the welcome mat out, so to
speak].
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The likewise-patriotic
right-wing media has also reacted, and as an example we have various news
headlines such as:"McCain warns Zapatero He'll stand Up to Leaders Who Aren't Friends of
the USA"; "McCain Avoids Speaking WithZapatero" or "McCainPasses on Zapatero."
So this is what we have. In a
previous column which was written before yesterday, I criticized the Right for
its xenophobia, for [PP Leader] Rajoy's statements in
connection with the 180,000 foreigners who draw [or receive benefits] from INEM [The Institute de Employment, part of the Ministry of
Labor and Immigration]. Today at least, I can only call him anti-patriotic. And in both cases, an extremist (of the Right). I will close
the same way I did then: "When will we have a Right like God intended in
this country?"