Party Colors

The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other. - Will Rogers

Like football teams, most nations’ political parties identify their affiliation by colors. Communists or socialist are red, royalists and conservatives are blue, environmentalists are green and so forth. The same is true with party names.

Governments, especially those who prefer the parliamentary form, have a clear line drawn in their different political parties. Basically there are three, namely right, center and left. Rights are conservatives, center for moderates and left represent the socialist. That includes the off-shoot of both poles, the ultra-right with their fascist-like ideals and the extreme-left with their Marxist’s ideology. During election, electorates know a candidate’s political agenda thru their party affiliation. That’s because party members personify the principles in which their party was founded.

But in the Philippines, colors do not represent a political group. It represents more an individual rather than an ideology. Aquino inherited yellow from his mother. I don’t know what orange means but Villar chooses it as his battle flag. Roxas’ blue, I think, show his family’s “royal” status in Western Visayas.

Party names are the same. It’s a misnomer, invented to deceive the ignorant. For instance; Pwersa Ng Masang Pilipino is not a socialist group nor it represent them. It only uses the masses for its own end. “Country first” is not the slogan or aim of the Nationalist People’s Coalition and Kilusang Bagong Lipunan have their chance yet I still have to see the social reforms it espouses.

In Congress, I observed only two political entities; the Leftist and the Opportunist. You know who the former are. They’re at the periphery of the congressional circle. They were not elected and their seats are courtesy of the party-list system. The latter is like a chameleon. It changes color to what ever surrounding it’s “in” and their loyalty is a commodity. It’s for sale and has an expiry date. It last only until the next election or maybe bartered in exchange for a slot in the line-up of any leading party. No wonder Reagan find no difference between a politician and a prostitute. They are similar in many ways.

In the US’s two party system, you’re either a republican or a democrat. Republicans are identified with the rich and democrats “represents” the middle class, ethnic groups and the low-income sector. But which ever party wins the presidency or garnered the majority in both houses, their first and foremost duty is to protect the domestic and foreign interests of corporate America. At least their leaders serve a group while ours serve their constituents only if they find it favorable to themselves.

Our government is run by people who think, not the welfare of those who voted them to power, but how to suck up to who ever guarantee their political survival. They think, not of our nation’s future, but how to safeguard their individual turf, as if it’s a legacy, theirs to own and handed down from parents to offspring.

Before we write down our candidates, let us learn first to differentiate what they say and what they meant. Read between the lines, recognize their true agenda and see through their façade to know their true color.