What is the moral compass of political parties (and politicians)?

I asked myself this question when I read, here on Brasil 247, a phrase attributed to the president of the PSB in São Paulo: "we are morally from different parties." Deputy Márcio França was referring to his party, Rede Sustentabilidade, and Marina Silva, who supposedly linked her candidacy for vice-governor on the ticket headed by Eduardo Campos, who will be running for president this year, to the fact that the PSB of São Paulo is not supporting the re-election of Geraldo Alckmin, but rather launching its own candidate for governor of the state.

The phrase is self-explanatory, as well as anthological. But what França seems to want to tell us is that he is morally different from Marina. Or rather, that they belong to “morally different” parties. But what is the morality of França and/or “his” PSB? What is the morality of Marina and/or “her” Rede? Do the parties – including the promising Rede – and the politicians, by any chance, have any morality, even a minimal one? Do they have any ideology or coherence? Isn't this supposed debate just a false controversy or a game played by amoral (or immoral) people to confuse and seduce the reader? Or is it really a genuine debate?

We know that the PSB in São Paulo, like the PPS, is a kind of "rent-a-party" for the PSDB. The PSB in São Paulo is neither "leftist" nor socialist. This is evident in its alliance with the most right-wing faction of the PSDB, represented by the Alckmin government. França, and therefore "his" PSB, is part of and participates in/is complicit with the (mis)government currently entrenched in the Bandeirantes Palace. And for this stance, he will certainly have to answer in the next election.

Therefore, it seems to us that the PSB in São Paulo bears no resemblance to the old PSB in Ceará, of the brothers Ciro and Cid Gomes, for example. But what about the "socialists" of Pernambuco?

One might also ask: what is Eduardo Campos's moral compass? He recently said in his state that the "alliance with the PSDB [Brazilian Social Democracy Party] is the new politics." What kind of "new politics" is that?! In Pernambuco, but not in São Paulo – is that it? What kind of ideology is that?! What kind of logic is that?! What kind of morality is that?! Has politics become a moral desert? Or are we experiencing an impregnable "morality of circumstance" in politics?

But what kind of politics is this, practiced shamelessly today, in broad daylight? Inhospitable, amoral, and desolate? Pragmatic? Politics with a lowercase "p" or an uppercase "P"?

Is the PSDB in Pernambuco not the same as the one in São Paulo? Just as the PSB in São Paulo was never the same as the one in Ceará. Or is Maluf's PP not the same as Dorneles's?

Marina would be right, if she's being sincere, if she's truly "taking a stand" by not accepting this arrangement. But I suspect Marina is just playing to the gallery; she's making another rehearsed marketing move, aiming to charm her supporters, her fellow members of the Sustainability Network, and also to win the sympathy of voters already quite disillusioned with politics.

Or perhaps, who knows, he still wishes to maintain a supposed stain and reputation of being a "virgin" by entering the "low brothel" of real politics.

Yes, that could be it. Marina, on the other hand, may simply be taking her own peculiar dose of "vaccine" as a precaution, before entering, without shame and with unsuspected ease, the inhospitable, indeed unhealthy, swampy jungle of Brazilian politics – despite and in defiance of the supposed purism of an ideology touted by the "virgin" Sustainability Network.

After all, some might argue, aren't Dilma and the PT also associated with the PP, the PTB, and other deplorably conservative parties and politicians? Aren't Dilma and the PT also in cahoots with Renan, Sarney, Collor, and their ilk?

Wasn't Kassab Serra's "crony"? Yes, but now he supports Dilma. Isn't the PP, which supports Dilma at the federal level, the same party as Maluf, which supports Alckmin in the state and the PT candidate Haddad in the municipality? Is the PTB "closed" with Alckmin in São Paulo and "open" with Dilma in the federal government? Doesn't all this seem confusing to the average voter? Is it promiscuity and opportunism; or pragmatism and governability?

- What the fuck is this?"?!" exclaims the Brazilianist who lives next door.

Well, if morality in politics doesn't exist, then would everything be permitted?

Is anything goes?

That's not quite right.

Just like in brothels, with their musty and eucalyptus-smelling carpets (and in society as a whole), there are no "immaculate virgins" in politics: only "old whores"—excuse the use of colloquial/vulgar language, sometimes more appropriate or unavoidable.

What voters should verify at the time of voting (but not only at those times) is what agenda and principles politicians, and parties, are committed to. And whether they are actually committed to anything at all.

Whether committed to a progressive agenda, currently held by and present in the ideology of the Workers' Party (PT) – and other left-wing parties – or committed, despite disguises, camouflage, and cover-ups, to a conservative, privatizing, and patrimonialist agenda, associated with the São Paulo PSDB and its allied parties.