The importance of principles in politics and the consequences of lacking them

For many years now, we Spaniards have been complaining about the ease with which many politicians break their promises.

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In the last decade we have had two great examples of this phenomenon in Spain. The first was the government of Mariano Rajoy, which came to power in 2011 with an absolute majority and promises of "change", but which ultimately left the socialist ideological laws intact, disappointing many former voters of the Popular Party. That was, precisely, one of the causes of the birth of Vox: the betrayal of the PP to its principles, by becoming a party that emptied itself of them, a process that had its clearest moment when Rajoy showed the exit door to the liberals and conservatives in Elche in 2008.

The second great example is the government of Pedro Sánchez, who came to power through a vote of no confidence in 2018 and has repeatedly done everything he said he would not do: allying himself with the communists of Podemos, allying himself with the heirs of ETA, giving an amnesty to the Catalan separatists and, finally, plunging into a wave of corruption scandals. If all this does not have a greater electoral cost for the socialists, it is because many of their followers live immersed in moral relativism (the belief that nothing is true or false, that everything depends on the lens through which it is viewed) and in the idea that the end justifies the means, including means such as lying and deceiving.

Certainly, in Spain there may be a change of government that will bring to power a political party that promises to do things different from those I have just reviewed, but nothing will change if the Spanish do not begin to demand a political class that has clear and firm principles, and not empty words that are carried away by the wind along with the promises made to the voters. We need politicians that we can trust and that do not change their minds like weather vanes.

There are people who see principles as a hindrance or as something that is not important. However, principles are the foundations on which we base our conduct. Our actions are the clear expression of the existence of solid principles or the absence of them. A politician who inspires confidence is one who expresses clear principles and is consistent with them, while a politician who claims to have certain principles but behaves inconsistently with them is not a trustworthy politician, nor is one who says that principles do not matter. If you support a relativist politician, do not later complain that he breaks his word, because for such a person words have no meaning and, therefore, lying is like "changing one's mind."

Of course, not all principles deserve equal consideration. The defence of the culture of life, of freedom, of democracy and of national unity is not comparable to the defence of the culture of death, of oppression and of the breakdown of national unity.

Furthermore, there are principles that serve as a meeting point for people of different tendencies. As a liberal-conservative, I may have certain differences with a traditionalist, but I fully agree with his defense of life from conception. Similarly, I have clear differences with a centrist, but I fully agree with his rejection of racism. What has been worrying for some time now is that political acronyms are being placed above principles, cornering those who refuse to give them up. That is, today, one of the greatest scourges of Spanish politics.