The Zombie Party - And a Zombie Nation

They saunter along the empty street, devoid of any living people, in a barricaded, rusty old city, bereft of any beauty and life. Akin to a horde menacing an ancient settlement, they violently dig through the tipped-over trash cans scattering the landscape, in search for anything worth grabbing onto. They climb on top of the decayed, withering trees, and glare at the sight before them; an ancient civilization, now covered in dust and in practical terms abandoned; an ancient civilization they, in some distant past, had helped create.

This is the Social Democratic Party - the People's Party, as the former President Penstubal would repeatedly declare - and this is the Republic of Demarcia - the "shining city on a hill", whose flag now serves merely as a hollow reminder of golden times that were so long ago.

The decline of the Social Democratic Party and the decline of Demarcia are hand in hand. The Social Democratic Party built up this country, and has been here since the very beginning of party politics in the country. Demarcia is unthinkable without the Social Democratic Party - just as, until October 2020, Demarcia was unthinkable without the Demarcian National Party. Indeed, the fall, and later revival, of the Party of Miron transformed the political and cultural landscape of the country.

It is becoming increasingly clear, to me, that the fall of the Social Democratic Party and the fall of Demarcia would happen at once, together. I do not believe that a Demarcia without an active and proactive SDP is the real Demarcia we had always known; I know that Demarcia without an active and proactive DNP already isn't the Demarcia we had always known.

The Social Democratic Party, more accurately termed the Zombie Party, is struggling to survive and it's strolling around aimlessly, barely showing any sign of a will to live.

What is the leader of the party doing? What is the rest of the party's active membership doing? Are they even talking to the average voter anymore, or have they shut themselves in their basements, forgetting the ways in which Penstubal and Vincent_Wolff, during their leaderships of the party in 2020, went around and talked to everyone?

Where exactly is the party going? What is its direction? Nobody knows. The current leader of the party certainly does not appear to know what his plans for the party are. And let's not even get started on the country.

As I had mentioned earlier, the decline of the SDP and the decline of Demarcia are hand in hand. Indeed, the SDP's dwindling electoral fortunes are clearly correlated with decreased activity of the citizens of Demarcia as well, the failure of authorities to engage the people and the incompetence of the government in carrying out its basic duties and committing to any brand new policies and principles.

Demarcia desperately needs a new party to transform the country and put it back on track; a modern party, equipped for the challenges of 2022 and ready to take action. Perhaps Penstubal's Action 2022 is exactly what we need; however, perhaps it would be a mistake and would split our politics at a time when unity in radical action is desperately needed. Perhaps it is too little, too late to take any sort of action now.

However, we must not give up. We must do everything in our power to create a vibrant and active Demarcia, engaging fully all citizens and regularly hosting major events. We must all get involved and work together - this is a task too difficult for anybody to carry out alone. That's why duties must be distributed across the active populace so that nobody is burdened with too much work.

Moreover, the Social Democratic Party must urgently figure out what it wants, whom it represents, what direction it is going and what kind of Demarcia it would like to see. The survival of the country hinges on a healthy Social Democratic Party - with or without Penstubal.

Fabian DeMarcus,

Demarcian Inquirer.