Opening the PAN

César Nava explains the motivation for the PAN's membership drive:

[T]he decision of the PAN to renew its citizen opening was preceded by the intense reflection that followed the elections of last July 5th. We started with the recognition that sometimes the parties' agenda conflicts with the agenda of the society and that Mexicans don't feel adequately represented by the parties, because we have dedicated more time than is desirable arguing about rules of access to power than addressing the simpler, more substantive problems of the people.

While this is going on, there exists in society a gigantic civic potential waiting for the space to manifest itself and act. Under this logic, a party that aspires to authentically represent Mexicans is obligated to take the first step and open itself up without reservations or hesitation. I am certain that beyond this affiliation campaign, the PAN will be a party not only of greater numbers, but also more representative of the very rich mosaic that permeates the spaces of our country.

Two points: one, this piece is immeasurably better than that of Beatriz Paredes on Monday. No, Nava's not going to win any columnist awards, and as a politician of course his writing has an unfortunate level of BS, but at least it doesn't read like a middle finger to aficionados of language. Let's see...concrete thesis, coherent paragraphs, few run-ons or fragments, no glaring contradictions...yes César, I think you'll pass Spanish composition.

The second point is that this idea, though hokey, strikes me as pretty much right on. One of the factors contributing to the hostility of the electorate toward the political parties is that the latter don't do a whole lot to engage the former in the political process. They are impersonal, faceless often corrupt bodies that obey their own set of rules while reigning from afar. The corruption, ruling from afar, and separate set of laws will be hard to deal with, but parties could take a lot of simple, mutually beneficial steps to address their facelessness before the populace. It remains to be seen what is the impact of the PAN's membership drive (and I don't think we'll really know until 2012), but I'd say Nava's legacy already exceeds his predecessor's at the head of the PAN (of course, that does set the bar a bit low).