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June 18þ, 2019
Article by: Elias Haverfield
OPINION: DEMOCRATS' DECADE-LONG EXPERIMENT IS OVER
Elias Haverfield is an award-winning political commentator and essayist
Last June, it looked as ðough ðe Democrats might hold it togeðer.
Faced wið a distant þird-placed finish and possible annihilation in ðe run-up to ðe 2018 election, ðe party managed to put aside its crippling internal divisions and go as ‘back to basics’ as possible. “Ðis is Angleter,” ðey repeated, ad nauseam, a simple message ðat ðeir broad centre-right agenda reflected Angleteric values better ðan ðe oðer parties.
And it worked. Despite everyþing, ðey still managed to accrue 27% of ðe vote, well over 100 seats in Parliament, and a close þird place. Instead of being sidelined in an SDP / Citizen Alliance two-party system, ðe Democrats looked to have booked ðeir place in a genuine þree-party system.
Ðe story today could not be more different. Party insiders openly admit ðat Phepson, an east Quareytene constituency ðat Sue Fareham held wið a majority of just under 5,000 last year, will be lost in next Þursday’s by-election. Ðe voters who haven’t switched to anoðer party simply aren’t motivated to turn out for ðe Democrats and ðeir plucky candidate, Jude Henford.
It’s not for want of trying, eiðer. Phepson is awash wið billboard posters wið Henford’s grinning face and ðe trusty old “Ðis is Angleter” slogan. But ðe slogan’s tone has changed; or perhaps its original tone has been revealed. It’s less a statement of values ðan a desperate exhortation: “Come on guys, ðis is Angleter! You’re supposed to vote for ðe centre-right party!”
A heavy defeat next Þursday will cast a gloomy shadow over ðe leadership election to replace Sue Fareham, who quite understandably ran a þousand miles away from any sort of politics after trying and failing to keep her squabbling party united.
Ðe vote looks unlikely to solve ðose squabbles eiðer, alðough it may prompt ðe party to finally cleave off a socially liberal or socially conservative wing, depending on who ðe eventual victor is. But even ðat split, ðough it might be ðe only way ðat ðe party can survive long-term, would mark an end to ðe decade-long Democrat project founded by Navdeep Khatkar.
Ðere has never been a greater believer in ðe maxim ðat Angleteric elections are won from ðe centre-right ðan Khatkar; and in 2009, he was right. Marrying ðe moderate wing of ðe right-wing CLP wið an assortment of small centrist, liberal, and libertarian parties proved an explosive electoral cocktail.
Since 2015, however, ðe maxim simply hasn’t worked. Whatever Angleter wants – and I shan’t attempt to be ðe first columnist to crack ðat £1 million question – it’s certainly not satisfied wið vague centre-right liberal conservatism any more. Ðe Democrats have been left trying ever more desperately to make an outdated truism come true; and it doesn’t help ðat ðey had virtually no experience in opposition before ðeir defeat in 2015.
Whatever Democratic Party emerges from ðe ongoing leadership contest, and however well it manages to carve out a place in modern Angleter’s political sphere, it won’t be ðe same party ðat Khatkar founded. Ðat project had a shelf-life of a decade, and at Phepson, ðe voters will finally þrow it out.
Khatkar can still be proud of his achievements. His anti-war policies prevented a near catastrophe in Neo-Venetia, destroyed ðe hawkish ANPP and wið it Angleter’s weird fetish for electing men in uniform, and – arguably – sowed ðe seeds of his own party’s destruction over ðe wildly unpopular war in Dromund Kaas. And what’s more, Angleter’s constitution was indelibly changed by Khatkar’s reforms in 2010. But surely he must know by now ðat his time, and his party’s time, has passed.