New York: Overestimation in elections is an age-old practice of cheap politics in the Dominican Republic. The devastating effects of this proselytizing vice were witnessed in the municipal elections held on Sunday, February 18, where the Modern Revolutionary Party swept humiliatingly against an opposition that unsuccessfully attempted to reunify through a farcical alliance they called “Rescue RD.” Therefore, the advisable course is, “They all must go!”
Firstly, that stillborn alliance was destined for failure because nobody believed in it, as its main actors never appeared together in public to demonstrate that they had at least given up personal animosity and hatred. Their goals were filled with personal and group expectations and needs. They did not fulfill a national agenda, with proposals beyond demagogy and personal interest, needing more objectivity and being empty. The Dominican people grew tired of Danilo Medina, Leonel Fernández, Miguel Vargas and their cohorts of corrupt individuals. Hence, the advisable course is, “They all must go!”
They failed to realize that the reasons they were ousted from power in the 2020 elections were the same ones that led to their electoral failure yesterday (Sunday, February 18). Without proposals, arguments, divisions, and fallacies, they tried to assault the conscience of people who no longer believe in them because the Dominican people know that “there cannot be different results with the same method.” Therefore, the advisable course is, “They all must go!”
The results of the February municipal elections are a microcosm of what will happen on a macro scale in the electoral spectrum in May. It can be seen as the actual survey, almost like a referendum, telling Danilo Medina, Miguel Vargas, and Leonel Fernández that the time to resign has come, that they can still leave with a shred of dignity, that they must make way for new leadership and truly let the PLD unify again. It is time for self-reflection for Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina. With this absolute electoral failure, any politician in a minimally advanced country would be resigning today, not tomorrow. Therefore, “They all must go!”
Danilo and Leonel live in a bubble anchored in a past society has already overcome. They need to realize that the Dominican people will remember that during the 20 years they both governed the country, they allowed corrupt groups entrenched in the power structure to steal everything. They allowed a regime of impunity to be established in their governments so deeply rooted that, despite these groups stealing the equivalent of 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country each year, which at the time amounted to 36 billion Dominican pesos, and with the 10% political clientelism they both imposed, they increased public spending to 51 billion pesos in 2017, to mention just one year, without anyone being arrested. These recent events led the people to oust the PLD and its partner, Miguel Vargas, in 2020. Therefore, “They all must go!”
