Love and hate are one of the most basic and powerful driving forces of human beings. What is love? It can be understood in the simplest words: Even if I am injured, I hope you are well. What is hate? Quite the opposite: Even if I get hurt, I still want you to get hurt. Both love and hate have power beyond calculation of interests. For this reason, when observing a person's political behavior, sometimes we can't just ask "what can he get", but also ask: Is he willing to pay the price with the community, just to cause greater harm to his hated political opponents?
When the Democratic Progressive Party government promoted pension reform in 2017, Chen Gengjin, then Chairman of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, once shouted to the current military, civil and military personnel to "make money if you can," "fuck if you can," and even "let's bring down this government." Opposing pension reform is a democratic right; fighting for one's own retirement rights is also a reasonable expression of interests. But "I want to protect my rights and interests" and "I want to bring down this government" are completely different political psychology. The former pursues its own interests; the latter exhibits the characteristics of retaliatory politics: even if the government operations are harmed and the people bear the cost, as long as the political enemies are harmed, they are willing to accept it.
Nine years later, Weng Xiaoling’s political behavior is also worthy of observation. She actively deleted the budget freeze of the executive branch. After the secret funds for state affairs were deleted, expenditures originally related to caring for disadvantaged groups were also affected. On the other hand, she established a congressional exchange-related association this year and planned to go to Europe for exchanges. She also applied for subsidies from the Taiwan Democracy Foundation through the Kuomintang. There is nothing wrong with applying for subsidies in accordance with the law. It is also a constitutional duty for the Legislative Yuan to review or even delete the administrative budget. What should really be tested is: Do you use the same set of standards for the public resources you need and the public resources held by your political opponents?
If politics gradually become "my resources are necessary, your resources will be cut if they can be cut", even if public interests are affected, then we should ask: Is this still rational budget supervision, or has political hostility begun to affect the use of institutional tools? And where do these political psychology come from? Part of the answer may be hidden in the history of Taiwan's democratization.
The authoritarian party-state system is not only a political system, but also a distribution system of power, resources, connections and social status. After democratization, political parties must compete, power must rotate, resources are gradually institutionalized, and everything begins to return to an open system and fair competition. For Taiwan, this is democratic progress; for some people who were originally adapted to the old system and even enjoyed the advantages of the system, what they feel may be "loss". What you lose is not just money, but also status, dignity, influence, and the worldview that you have believed in your whole life. This is the "sense of relative deprivation."
But loss does not necessarily produce hate. Here’s the real twist: Who do you think you lost? When dissatisfaction is blamed on a specific political party, ethnic group, or democratization itself, dissatisfaction may turn into anger, and anger may accumulate into hostility and finally hatred. Politics may also gradually change from "I want to make my life better" to "I want to make you pay the price." This is where democracy needs to be most vigilant.
Understanding hate is not to hate it back, but because only by knowing where it comes from can we reduce it. Democracy cannot eliminate love and hate in human nature, but it can manage it through the rule of law, separation of powers, fair competition and procedural justice. The true maturity of democracy is not that everyone loves each other, but that even if they hate each other, they are still unwilling to destroy the country where everyone lives together in order to hurt each other.
After the freeze on state secret fees, expenditures originally related to caring for disadvantaged groups have also been affected. The Mid-Autumn Festival is the most important time of the year for many sheltered workshops. Orders from the presidential office and other public departments symbolize the country's friendliness and support for disadvantaged groups. Taiwan has entered democracy for thirty years. Some people may not have fully caught up yet.
