The 3 F's meet the 3 S's

A simplified explanation of Patria's Diet Coke Party phenomenon: the Three F's of the U.S. Republicans and Christian supremacists - Faith, Family, Freedom - meet the Three S's of the SRM and the Hindu nationalists - Satyagraha, Swadeshi, Swaraj. For those who haven't been following the Patriavotes2010 twitter feed (shame on you!), Satyagraha is non-violent Gandhi-style resistance or civil disobedience, Swadeshi refers to made-in-Patria domestic production of virtually everything, rather than dependence on imports (mainly from China), and Swaraj means literally self-rule, i.e. freedom from China, or freedom from globalization-mongers who are exporting high-paying manufacturing jobs to China and replacing them with (if you're lucky) minimum-wage service industry jobs. And like India in the dying days of the Raj, leading up to Aug. 15, 1947, Patria today sees itself locked in a struggle for freedom - not from the British, but from China. And while China might not be ruling Patria (and the U.S. for that matter) as a colonial power, the forces of globalization, free trade and made-in-China imports make it seem that way.

With a big chunk of seats likely to be won in the new Congress, the SRM will be crucial in forming the next coalition. Some of the more moderate SRMers can be persuaded to join the Positive Possibilities, while the "take back the economy" Hindu hard-liners are firmly in the Diet Coke Party camp (though they may be drinking ThumsUp, which is almost as popular as Coke in Patria).