Wrong again

So on Saturday night, as we read about parents and children occupying Catalan schools (polling stations for Sunday's referendum) overnight, I said to the First Reader, "Wonder what Madrid is going to do about that. They can't want to have the Internet flooded with pictures of the Guardia Civil dragging parents out of schools."

Oh, was I wrong. Maybe they didn't want that result - but that's what they got. Pictures and videos of cops dressed like Darth Vader, dragging citizens out of polling places, beating citizens with batons, ad infinitum.

The legal status of the Catalan referendum is dicey as all getout; there's no opt-out clause in the Spanish constitution, only about a third of eligible voters voted, one can reasonably argue that the reported 2-million-to-2-hundred-thousand results favoring independence is flawed because the anti-independence voters didn't go to the polls for an illegal election. But the pictures, dear God, the pictures! I find it hard to believe that this is what Madrid wanted splashed across every newspaper in Europe. Longfellow got it right: "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad."

At least I know now that I am not actually the worst PR-and-marketing person in the universe. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy holds the title.

Good thing he's not trying to sell books.