I am going to follow my own advice in a response to Georgia's post, and post a digest of news from Spain:
The reason is that the tactics used by the right here are identical to those used in the US. The same or parallel insults, the same truthiness, the same type of talk radio, xenophobia, etc., etc. Yet here the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is the government and they are there in part because they counter the right every step of the way. They are feisty and they have stories to sell. I think that seeing how they do that can help give idea to liberals in the US about how to be more effective selling ideas.
Barcelona,
Today there is a referendum in Catalonia on a new "autonomy statute," which increases the autonomy of the community and improves the financing.
The right wing Partido Popular is strongly opposed. Catalonia has a long tradition of pulling for more autonomy, and some here favor independence. A touchy symbol for both sides is the use of the term "nation" to describe Catalonia. The right uses the referendum's fudging of the term as a way of demonstrating that the socialists are weak, that they cannot defend Spain's territorial integrity, and maybe deep down, yes, "they hate Spain." Also, the new autonomy statute was negotiated with a party favoring independence for Catalonia, which even worse was part of the Catalan autonomous government! Even the church is getting into the act (late) with plans to declare the unity of Spain a moral good. (The church is even more in bed with the right here than in the US).
This tactic is a good one because it finds plenty of resonance among potential socialist voters in the center of the country, and a number of socialist party members have opposed the referendum.
How did the socialists respond? Prime Minister Zapatero played dirty. He betrayed the pro-independence party, and renegotiated the statute in secret with a more moderate (actually center-right) Catalan nationalist party. This infuriated some people here (including friends of mine), but in fact I think it was highly astute. It forced the independence party to leave the Catalan government and oppose the referendum, but doing so pulled the rug out of the arguments that the Statute would break up the country. How can you sell a story that the Statute would lead to independence when those who want independence are opposed to it? He also, allowed other autonomous communities to renegotiate their Statutes, which tends to weaken the Popular Party locally because the local branches want more authority.
The passing of the statute is a foregone conclusion. The country won't break up, and the right will have gotten less traction they might have otherwise.