단상斷想

Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, a second-term lawmaker from the People Power Party, has been elected as the new leader. He narrowly defeated Kim Moon-soo, former Minister of Employment and Labor who was a presidential candidate, by a margin of 2,367 votes. It was an upset. He received 185,401 votes (52.88%) in the party member electoral college vote, defeating former Minister Kim, who received 165,189 votes (47.12%), by a margin of 20,212 votes. However, in the public opinion poll, he received 34,901 votes (39.82%), trailing former Minister Kim, who received 52,746 votes (60.18%), by 17,845 votes.

Initially, former Minister Kim's victory was highly likely, but the situation went to a runoff vote, giving rise to an upset. In elections, it is common for the underdog to chase and ultimately win in the final stretch. This election showed that People Power Party members could no longer place any hope or expectation on the aging and stale Kim Moon-soo.

The People Power Party, devastated by the state of emergency and the impeachment of Yoon Seok-yeol, seems to be showing a gambling or resigned mentality of 'let's just entrust it to a freshman with a second term.' Nevertheless, Jang Dong-hyuk's victory is so unfamiliar that it feels unsettling and foreshadows a bleak future for the conservative party, and furthermore, for Korean politics.

One of the scenes that caught the eye during the People Power Party's national convention was Jang Dong-hyuk's 'roar' performance. The firm vocalization pulled from the diaphragm, the emphasis and high-low rhythm that seemed to have been learned in a speech academy, and the bold hand gesture that burst out at the end overwhelmed Kim Moon-soo's sleepy speaking style.

However, it somehow felt like an artificial and contrived speech filled only with oratory skills. Just as a religious group 'leader' overwhelms believers with loud voices and violent gestures, Jang Dong-hyuk's 'bloodshot' speech was a bizarre scene that symbolically showed the current People Power Party.

The People Power Party has become a cult political group dominated by emotions and hatred, not reason and common sense, since the declaration of martial law and the impeachment of Yoon Suk-yeol last year. For the time being, demagogic politics, which raises the resentment and anger of party members to the maximum by raising blood vessels in their necks and igniting the 'anti-Lee Jae-myung front', will become the compass of the conservative party that has lost its way.

The people are sending worried eyes to the 'result' of this bizarre People Power Party convention. If you are an ordinary person with common sense, you would expect the conservative party, whose president was impeached by the declaration of martial law, to be reborn through genuine repentance and reflection, but you are feeling more than embarrassed and even angry at the scene where a candidate who advocates martial law and visits the leader of the insurrection stands as the party leader.

So why did the People Power Party go against public sentiment and push a 'anti-Park Geun-hye faction' candidate to the position of party leader? The People Power Party, which has produced many conservative leaders in Korean politics and believes that it has led the Republic of Korea to this day with pride as 'Park Chung-hee's successors,' why was it forced to make such an illogical and desperate choice?

First, I believe that the People Power Party believes or is mistaken that they can also achieve the Democratic Party's 'success equation.' The Democratic Party pushed a 'non-mainstream' politician named Lee Jae-myung to the presidential seat with the support of hardcore supporters centered around Gae-ttal (개딸, a derogatory term for hardcore Lee Jae-myung supporters). Lee Jae-myung had a fatal weakness called 'judicial risk,' but the Democratic Party turned that weakness into a frame of oppression by the political prosecution and eventually achieved power.

Lee Jae-myung's judicial risk completely disappeared as he ascended to the presidential throne (or it may be revived again if the conservative government takes power next time). During President Lee's term in office, judicial risk will not hold him back.

It seems that the People Power Party also expects that if Lee Jae-myung takes power and the judicial risk is resolved, and if they win the next presidential election, Yoon Seok-yeol's martial law and impeachment will also be 're-evaluated'. This is similar to the Democratic Party extinguishing Lee Jae-myung's judicial risk through winning the presidential election. The People Power Party also has the original sin of martial law and impeachment, but they are falling into a huge self-hypnosis, believing that if they win the presidential election by transforming this into a frame of ending the parliamentary dictatorship and populism of the Lee Jae-myung regime, the illegality of the martial law insurrection will also disappear.

The logic is, "If the Democratic Party is doing it, there's no reason we can't." The reason why the People Power Party believes in such a far-fetched idea is precisely because of its 'party members.' The reason Jang Dong-hyeok broke expectations and rose to the party leader position despite being anti-Park Geun-hye faction is because the People Power Party also has a strong 'fandom politics' operating, no less than the Democratic Party.

In this regard, the part where Jang Dong-hyeok declared in his inaugural address, "I will dedicate everything to overthrowing the Lee Jae-myung regime in solidarity with all right-wing citizens," is significant. They are trying to escape by shifting the original sin of Yoon Seok-yeol's insurrection and impeachment into a completely absurd frame of ending the Lee Jae-myung dictatorship.

Here, Yoon Suk-yeol's existence is no longer important. With Jang Dong-hyuk's election, the People Power Party has directly brought the political responsibility for the martial law and impeachment committed by Yoon Suk-yeol into their party. And they will never apologize or reflect, but rather endure with the frame of 'ending the Lee Jae-myung dictatorship' and fight against the ruling party.

The Jang Dong-hyuk regime, just as Lee Jae-myung did not show any apology or reflection on the judicial risks but rather confronted the political prosecution's oppression more strongly, the People Power Party will also establish a strategy to engage in a clearer fight against the ruling party rather than reflecting on Yoon Suk-yeol's martial law or impeachment. The reason why the actions of the ruling and opposition parties, which are so out of touch with public sentiment, are happening is because existing politics have been completely subsumed into fandom politics dominated by party members.

Now, politics no longer exists as a system governed by conviction and cooperation. Politics is dominated by the irrational violence of powerful and addictive fandom politics. Politicians (Jung Chung-rae has long been an avatar of mainstream party members) no longer bother to persuade or lead party members. They ask themselves why bother going down a difficult path when they can win party leadership, the presidential election, and a badge just by obediently following what the party members say. They act as if fandom politics is a new turning point and the essence of Korean politics.

Jang Dong-hyuk's election means that illegal martial law and impeachment are no longer a matter of right and wrong values ​​and legality, but have become their survival shield that the conservative camp must defend to the end. If the People Power Party leadership apologizes and reflects on the martial law and impeachment and shows a 'soft' attitude, the fandom politics that support the conservative party will never tolerate it. There is no politics, only fandom remains.

Many political experts are concerned about the fandom politics that has appeared in Korean politics. Although there are positive aspects such as giving party members a sense of ownership and increasing the sense of political participation, fandom politics grows by feeding on hatred, anger, exclusion, and stigma. Sometimes, yielding and compromising is the essence of politics and the operating principle of democracy, but fandom politics, under the pretext of party member sovereignty, brands those 'traitors' as 'watermelons' and thoroughly crushes them when they do not suit their taste or offend them. The People Power Party also attacks party members who Park Geun-hye called 'traitors' in the past, or who oppose martial law or support impeachment now, as 'traitors'. If the Democratic Party has watermelons, the People Power Party has traitors.

Like this, Korean politics is surrounded by fandom politics and is losing its original function. Jang Dong-hyuk's rise is not simply an unusual event for a two-term lawmaker who is good at oratory, but a gloomy and desperate signal flare that 'fandom politics,' which gnaws at democracy according to the tastes of 'fans,' has completely entered the center of politics. It is the job of politicians to bring the passion and energy of fandom to the stage of compromise and inclusion, but only division and conflict are growing on the backs of the fandom that Chung Cheong-rae and Jang Dong-hyuk are riding on. There is no future in fandom politics.