After being elected to Valencia’s regional assembly, Galcerán says she wants to be seen as a person, not for her disability
For decades she battled to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities were part of the conversation. The extent of the progress she had made, however, was laid bare recently when Mar Galcerán became Spain’s first parliamentarian with Down’s syndrome.
“It’s unprecedented,” the 45-year-old told the Guardian. “Society is starting to see that people with Down’s syndrome have a lot to contribute. But it’s a very long road.”
Her feat has been decades in the making. When Galcerán was 18 years old, she joined the conservative People’s party (PP) after being attracted to what she described as its embrace of tradition.
Slowly she worked her way up the party apparatus. Her commitment paid off last May when she was added as the 20th name on the list of candidates the PP was fielding in Valencia’s regional elections.
I fully support Glacerán’s or any other somehow differently abled person’s right to do anything they want. It’s unironically great that she got into politics, and it’s great that people with Down’s get representation like this which has been sorely missing.
This doesn’t change the fact that Down’s syndrome does have effects on cognitive function, and there’s clear neuroanatomical differences that cause those effects. This doesn’t mean she or anybody else with Down’s is somehow “less than” anybody else, but it’s undeniable that there’s going to be some sort of cognitive deficit there when compared to the general population, which is why it’s not exactly surprising that Glacerán felt that a conservative party was the most “attractive”.
I don’t see how it’s ableism to point out that there’s a lot of research showing that people who endorse right-wing ideals are more likely to have lower cognitive abilities (of multiple types). It’s not like I’m saying everybody who has Down’s is going to be prejudiced because they’re 100% certainly going to be conservative, or that people with Down’s shouldn’t be allowed to participate in politics, for example. But the fact of the matter is that there’s a lot of empirical evidence that conservative ideologies are attractive to folks with comparatively worse cognitive skills, because they’re exactly the sort of people who would be motivated to support an ideology that emphasizes tradition and strict social norms, and Down’s does lead to cognitive issues.