1.
When someone say’s “Oh, I´m C of E.”, they aren’t really telling you anything about their religious views, if they have any. They might be evangelical, almost RC, or functionally agnostic. There’s no way of knowing without pursuing them further on the matter.
2.
The same goes for Peronism. At a formal level it’s a political party but beyond that it’s a sensibility, a pre-ideological field of cultural belonging, available for appropriation by Christian democrats, Nazis, socialists and everyone else.
3.
Even gorilas are also Peronists in the sense that opposition to Peronism and all its works is their only political reference point.
4.
In the late 40s and early 50s Perón, who came to power in a coup led by pro-Axis officers, created a corporate state; Mussolini’s Italy with more social protection for the previously despised and excluded working class.
5.
The coup that overthrew him in 1955 led to 18 years of military role, limited experiments with democracy and the proscription and persecution of Peronism. The Peronist welfare state was left largely intact.
6.
With a view to loosening the grip of the military on power, Perón in exile encouraged the growth of revolutionary leftist Peronism. When he returned in 1973 he turned on the leftists and encouraged the Nazi element of the movement to start slaughtering them. This process speeded up after he died and was systematized and extended by the military after the 1976 coup.
7.
Luder, the Peronist candidate in the first free election after the collapse of the dictatorship in 1983, ran on a “forgive and forget” platform and endorsed the outgoing dictatorship’s amnesty of itself.
8.
Menem was a hugely popular president. He privatized everything he could and destroyed both the Peronist welfare state and the political power of the armed forces.
9.
Néstor Kirchner skillfully accumulated power in difficult circumstances by combining support for the prosecution of the torturers and mass killers of the dictatorship (not something he had shown the slightest interest in before becoming president) with an economic boom produced by the export of raw materials and unprocessed agricultural products. The social benefits of the boom were very limited and arose solely from a modest trickledown effect.
10.
The government did badly in the mid-term elections and if there’s one thing Peronists of all stripes hate it’s a loser. The barons of the party are grumbling and cursing and a re-alignment of forces is taking place. Cristina would want to quickly brush up on her wheeling and dealing skills if she wants to see out her mandate.
