The Decline and Fall of the Center-Left
With Emmanuel Macron’s election in France and the rejection of the far-right Marine Le Pen, the neoliberal establishment breathed a sigh of relief. The populist backlash was "over". It was time to crank out more privatization, austerity, and increased military spending.
That denial ended Sunday in Italy.
The elections for the parliament are notable in one important respect: anti-establishment parties look to have won comfortably more than half the vote, an uncomfortable milestone for protest politics in a western liberal democracy. The election was marked by a rising tide of anti-migrant feeling. Italian soil is often the first that migrants fleeing north Africa by boat land on. Over the years the arsenic of anti-immigration rhetoric has been dripped into the country’s political water supply. The new kingmakers are likely to be the populist Five Star Movement, whose weirdness is personified by its commitment to repeal a law that makes it illegal for parents to not vaccinate their children, and the hard-right, anti-migrant Eurosceptic Lega Nord.
The Five-Star movement is unpredictable, with both leftist and rightist elements.
The Northern League, on the other hand, is a bunch of fascists.
Traditional center-left parties have collapsed in Greece, Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and now Italy.
They are on the ropes in Sweden, Spain, and in other nations.
The Wall Street Journal wondered aloud What Happened To The Moderate left?
Organized labor, a traditional base for the center-left, has shrunk, as the traditional blue-collar “proletariat” has given way to a more diffuse “precariat” of people in low-paid or insecure jobs.
Uh, yeah. That pretty much sums it up. The center-left failed to protect the voters it was supposed to protect.
What did the center-left do instead?
As liberals backed away from the hard politics of material redistribution, they found themselves trying to redistribute the honorific resources of society. Instead of dramatically expanding day care, you could talk about single mothers as heroes. Instead of integrating recent migrant communities in Europe, you could preach the end of the old national cultures as a liberation. Instead of building an economy that provided the material basis for family formation, you could praise nontraditional households and identities. Decades ago, it was the greedy plutocrat or boss who was the enemy. Now the enemy was the stultifying old culture that honored men who “worked hard and played by the rules.”The results are everywhere to see. Almost anywhere that there is economic stagnation or deindustrialization — East Germany, Northern industrial towns in Britain, southern Italy, Appalachia — there is a populist politics that wants to reverse, slow down, or at least tame the economic and social consequences of globalism. Will there even be a center Left in five years?
Perhaps only in media institutions, the last places where the center-left sensibility continues to reign almost unimpeded.
The Democrats are next in line.
They can either move to the left like the UK Labour party, or they will become irrelevant.
Comments
Spot on.
Italy is the Brexit of 2018.
There were gasps at the Neocon/Neoliberal presidential incubator — the Council on Foreign Relations. (All modern presidents put in a full-term there before they are allowed to run. ALL of them. Both Republicans and Democrats of the uniparty.)
Check them out. Among their 3000 "recommended" members are every war criminal in the United States. They are the lobbyists, politicians, media moguls, financiers, and the Princes of the defense industry. They are the CEOs, the Deep State bureaucrats, the heads of the Intelligence agencies past and present, and old-money wealthy who own us, and have twisted our dismal futures. They all have one thing in common since 1920 — they long to rule the world completely, just the way they rule you. They are the reason we have endless wars and global murder and dislocation.
We pay for all foreign policy they tell the President and Congress to execute anywhere in the world. But we the people have no serious infrastructure nor healthcare guarantee. We have hunger and homelessness because we live on a plantation and we are disposable. Not one American in 1000 has ever heard of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). They are somehow missing from nearly all the history textbooks we produce.
Democrats are going to underperform and lose in 2018. How can we turn that into an advantage? We told them, last time, not to run Hillary because people won't get behind someone who doesn't represent them, anymore. The Democratic Party doesn't listen. It's dirty; burn it down. The world is saying out loud, "America needs a Left."
[added link, etc.]
They just don't give a shit.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmMPwX5fU8E]
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
The CFR is our unelected government
We are not going to vote our way out of the mess we're in. Not as long as organizations like this exist.
This would make a good sigline
We have hunger and homelessness because we live on a plantation and we are disposable.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
America could use an actual Left party.
But I'm still wondering how many people have to die of old age before this is to become possible.
"The Democratic Party has been focused too much on pleasing people who matter too little in this society." -- Chris Cuomo
All true. Still, ranting is dead.
By which I mean we need a specific program to get where we need to be. "We" means the 80% who know the game is rotten, and who need to snap to the fact that partisanship has to be put aside for at least a period of time, and to achieve a precise object:
Force Media to feature the fact that everyone knows neither Party gives a flying fuck about the people of this country and wouldn't e even exist if RICO was enforced. AND that we know Media functions as the propaganda outlet for the Filthy Rich and War Mongers, working hard to keep us divided, distracted, and ill-informed.
To work we'd need a Revolutionary Act of Civility, and a temporary truce, among the various factions of the People.
There's a great cartoon; first panel a speaker asks the crowd "who wants change?" and they say "we do. " next panel "who WANTS to change" is met with silence.
Revolutionaty Civility; a truce on factional fights; all-directional pressure on Media to cover the fact we have Mockery instead of Democracy and we know they function as our enemy.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Excellent comment.
As usual you get down to the real essence of it.
Good to see you, Jim. I'm nodding off here or I'd elaborate on what you said.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
"How can we turn that into an advantage?" Do something
hi, what do you mean there, electorally or what? My feeling is please stop talk talk talking and start doing all the things that need doing, because elections aren't moving anything fast or far enough. The quote in the essay, thanks gjohnsit, could be California D-Values in a nutshell I think:
Sheesh I remember LOLing at GWB 'cause he was "all hat and no cattle". The Ds have become braying asses in their own right. Do-nothings. So, I submit what's needed is another Occupy-like movement where people spend their $27+ a month during campaign season to build those things anyway. Daycare, migration facilities, family friendly economy. NOT another rentier ownership society. fuck that shit
Now I understand intentional communities, to get the eff away from the shuffling madness. Where are the C99 Intentional Communities? "If you build it ...." hint
peace
Absolutely, from every angle.
This brings to mind the R Buckminster Fuller quote:
Which echos your point. Fuller also said, "Don't fight forces, use them." That was on my mind about using the folly of our leaders to our advantage. I've noticed lately, that I am losing interest in them.
Intentional Communities is a topic in my daily news feed. I never stop looking. It might be magically simple to make that happen. But, holding it together is the real challenge. What a journey it would be — as opposed to doing nothing.
Then, there's Margaret Mead:
Either war is obsolete, or men are.
The coup d etat is in full bloom
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
I've already seen the neolib trolls calling this
the result of Russian meddling.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
what else could it be?
It had to have been Putin
@gjohnsit Putin must be easily
Putin must be easily the most powerful man in the world.
Dear Putin: for Christmas I want a pony and a train and a dolly...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Indeed Very Powerful
You will get that pony, train and dolly.
Remember those unicorns and rainbows people like us have been accused of seeking (a.k.a. government that serves to benefit)? Based on the avalanche of "news" I've seen over the last year, Putin has the power and wherewithal to actually DELIVER on those unicorns and rainbows by merely using a string, paperclip and a Lincoln penny! Putin is the master of all.
Is this the pony that we were accused of wanting
from Obama after the ACA was passed? Ponies and unicorns. Just be satisfied that we got universal bullsh*t instead of single payer. Oh that's right, he never promised us that ...
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@snoopydawg He never promised
He never promised us anything. We imposed our foolish expectations upon him, but he did his best to bear up under the burden.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@ChezJfrey I didn't know
I didn't know Putin starred in 1980s American TV!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
While we're at it...
Could I get maybe some peace on earth too?
We are talking Xmas after all.
Don't forget the pony though.
Thanks Vlad.
I keep telling everyone...
I want a pony...please..please...please!
I want a Pony!
@peachcreek I'd make this an
I'd make this an essay, but you can bet people would ignore the snark and use it as proof that we're some kind of fifth column.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@peachcreek As far as the
As far as the political leader of an imperial power with nukes can, I think probably Vlad does want world peace. At least in the sense of not raining nukes down on the globe and bringing an end to human civilization and life as we know it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I think you're right:
I know that its true of the Russian people, for a very significant reason:
The Russians lost 20 million people in their last global skirmish. They are the only ones in this conversation that actually understands what we're talking about. They're living inside a history that now wants to repeat itself. Americans are not fit to weigh in on such matters. They lost their entire shit over a single attack that killed 3,000 people. Their nation has become a rogue terrorist state and the People are too mentally broken to object. Some scholars say the American People cannot be repaired. We just have to wait for everyone to die off and start out clean, with a strong vision of human decency and a new generation.
@Pluto's Republic We've objected
We've objected plenty. The only kinds of objecting we haven't done: general strikes, refusal to pay taxes, attempting to overthrow the government with guns.
That's because all of those tactics have terrible personal costs and some--like refusing to pay taxes--just results in the government seizing whatever assets you have and putting you in jail. So they get their money anyway.
People are, understandably, terrified of general strikes because it's hard enough for them to get a job in the first place. And most people understand that the government outguns us to the point that violent revolution is tactically equivalent to blowing one's own brains out. It won't affect the government, except to have them step up the police state.
The last time I talked to someone about this in real life (not online), it was a preschool teacher with very little money. I said, "People online are saying the American people aren't resisting these awful things the government is doing." She said, simply, "How?"
She's not a genius, nor politically obsessed like I am. But she sees clearly that we have been outmaneuvered.
The American people aren't passive because they like it this way, or because they're rock stupid. Some of us are rock stupid; most of us simply see that we have no recourse. This is a trap we're in. A lot of people seem to want to blame the people caught in the trap for being there, rather than blaming the people who set the trap. But it makes sense, if you do want to blame the people in the trap, to at least refrain from generalization. If the blame should be placed on the people at all, it should be placed on those who freely chose to step into it. That was about 30 years ago. There were a few years afterward where we might, perhaps, have been able to step out of the trap. By roughly 25 years ago, though, that was no longer an option.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
We're very far apart, here.
Not only in opinion but in perception.
Do you fret over the US global murder regime on a daily basis? Do you stay informed. Do you speak about it or write about it and keep the flame of peace alive? It seems to me that you do. Thus you are doing the work that every citizen should do. Your moral compass is on display. If everyone was mindful like that, a lot of our problems would cease.
I wasn't blaming anyone for anything. I said:
Those are not opinions.
Those are facts we are dealing with. These facts explain our situation.
I work with demographics. It is the essence of generalization, without which a society wouldn't know what it needed or how to measure progress. I regard myself as an outlier to this culture. I automatically assume the data does not refer to me. The shoe doesn't fit.
I've been surprised recently by semantic confusion between the "one" and the "many." I assumed this was hardwired in the brain. Clearly, it's not because I am tripping people up. Maybe I sound like I am forcing them into the group being discussed. Or maybe it's about nationalism, to which I am admittedly insensitive.
Let's move on. I don't know whether you've noticed that I do not call for or support revolution, protest, resistance, or strikes. Certainly not at the Federal level. It doesn't work and it puts people in unnecessary risk. You discuss those things as potential pathways to change and power. That's where we differ. That would never occur to me. I look at the realities:
1. We are living under the rule of a coup government. To most foreign governments, the US government in DC is now completely unrecognizable. They look at the American people, who are acting like they still live in a democracy. So, they say nothing.
2. Domestic and international politics have been severed in the US. For most people, only domestic politics matter. That's the way the Coup Cartel wants it. Their media cohort use CIA talking points to keep the people geopolitically misinformed about what the United States is doing.
3. The American people are determined to pretend they have a democracy. They think that voting for a president works just like voting for anyone else. They pretend they are the ones who select the two candidates. They pretend they are fine with only two Parties and the forced consensus of winner take all except when they're wearing pussy hats. They pretend that the US political spectrum has a Left wing, rather than two Right wing parties. They pretend they have human rights (while the Chinese and Russians don't). They pretend that they live under the rule of law, where justice is blind. They pretend its reasonable to have fifty different voting systems with fifty different sets of laws to take a national vote.
And then they vote, which I am beginning to see as aiding and abetting the illegitimate Coup government.
I'm still sorting out which facts must be considered, and which can be safely ignored. So far, I see no political mechanism for change, except for highly coordinated populist voting alliances and outsider candidates. The problem is, the American people are demonstrably unfit to make political judgements at present.
We still need to rely on the world to win our nation back for us.
Well, I was going to give a more in-depth response
But Putin phoned and instead he wanted me to press the point that "Nuclear winter is bad." So like a good little Putin puppet, there you have it. I'm certain nuclear winter is bad. He also told me a picture is worth a thousand words so here's my supporting argument:
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Some guy set up a poll
How soon after the Italian election will Putin be blamed for right wingers winning? Seemed at least that Samantha Powers, the great Italian scholar and linguist of all things Italian, blamed Putin immediately.
When people feel insecure economically and deep in debt
...they don't feel generous. They feel scared because they are being crushed by austerity and the middle class is under attack financially. The fear for the future.
When the lsrgest gap in modern history has opened in nations between ALL the money on one side and ALL the people on the other — that's a time when people don't want to welcome millions of cultural strangers to come into their country and compete for the scraps they are already fighting over.
Let's stop calling them racists, shall we? Or fascists. They're the opposite of fascists. They're the victims of corporate-owned governments. Your old community does a great job of smearing them. They don't need your help.
These populations are trying to survive against really lousy odds; trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy. (They are on the way to losing everything they have, and sinking to a lower level of existence. But they don't know that the belt will continue to tighten. They can't face it yet.)
If people don't want to open their borders to immigrans, why should they have to? It's their country; their home. They are trying to exercise self-determination over their destiny and that of their children. So, why do we call them names? Why do we think immigration should be forced on them? Instead, we should be condemning the torturous austerity imposed as the last of their wealth is transferred upwardly. Instead, we should be working to redistribute the wealth. Once the People recover, there will be no problem.
We need to start fighting the right battles. Donald Trump is what you get when you try to force immigration on people being crushed by austerity. We need to start fighting the right people.
And we must keep our eye on the ball — that pivotal point where the problem actually lives. We need to build a foundation that will support the utopian dreams of our common decency.
recovery
This is true -- everywhere. When the Peoples of our Earth all live comfortably at home, immigration is no problem. And when one People isn't able to do that, chances are most other Peoples aren't able to do it either -- hence "the problem".
It's not racism, it's a fucking resource war! Gak!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloides It's Contrived Disaster
It's Contrived Disaster Capitalism.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Fascism thrives on the vulnerability of the maligned
not having any representation. Hedges talks about this a lot. Sets them up to fall straight into the arms of what seems like a benevolent dictator who says all the right things and strikes all the right tough poses.
A lot of what you say is true. But as far as I know, Lega Nord are fascists. And in this case they may be cosigned now with the jobless, underpaid and overworked.
I tried to simplify things for an old friend who is sharp but not very political-minded with leanings both ways.
Told him about that the backlash to immigrants stealing American jobs is a businessman's ploy. Don't take it out on the foreign workers who are slaving away for pennies. It's the owners who don't want to pay you more and not only rely but encourage this steady stream of cheap labor. That's how they become fabulously rich.
Plus, ever think of why so many desperate people are forced to come here (or in this case to Europe)? They don't necessarily want to leave their beautiful ancestral homes. It's because American imperialism has turned their countries upside down, drained all their resources, deposed their natural rights, while flinging open the door for American corporations to ransack all they can get their hands on and depressing their wages - until they're left with no other option than to seek possibly slightly better wages from their oppressors.
I think he began to see it in another light. Funny, because although he occasionally spouts some RW "law and order" and other bs, he's come out and said things to me months or years after such conversations, such as, "I think anything that everybody uses should not be in the hands of private companies." I smiled and said how pleased I was to see him becoming a good Socialist.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
@Mark from Queens Said it better than I
Said it better than I did. And with a nasty head cold, too.
Hope you're feeling better, Mark.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Bin-go, Mark
Excellent comment.
"Don't take it out on the foreign workers who are slaving away for pennies. It's the owners who don't want to pay you more and not only rely but encourage this steady stream of cheap labor. That's how they become fabulously rich."
Even racist Trump hires foreign workers for his many hotels and golf clubs. Plus a lot of people made the perilous journey through the unforgiving desert to come here to work after NAFTA destroyed a lot of jobs in Mexico. Then there's the immigrants who are escaping from violence that we had a hand in creating.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@Pluto's Republic It's one thing not to
It's one thing not to open your borders, though I do have a problem with it given the desperation of the people fleeing their countries and the fact that usually the culprit that caused their countries to become unbearable may be found in the developed world. The fact that Italy is not the main mover and shaker in these matters is a point, but not a discussion-ending one.
However, while I may have some problem with countries not opening their borders, I have a hell of a lot bigger problem with the rhetoric that usually accompanies support for such policies, which is vile, and often directed, not at people who want to immigrate, but at people who already have. Indeed, the arguments against letting people immigrate usually revolve around attacks on people who already have. The demonization, xenophobia, and scapegoating that ensues tends toward a very ugly state of mind that I'm always wary of in homo sapiens: the sense that here is a person that it's OK to hurt. Here is a whole group of people that it's OK to hurt.
That said, not everybody on the Brexit side of things is a fascist or a Nazi, anymore than every Trump supporter was moved to support Trump because he's racist: a lot of people in West Virginia who voted for Trump had, a few months before, cheered Black Lives Matter at a Bernie Sanders rally.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Refugee crisis
The refugee crisis has been a gift to the Nazis. The saddest part is that the George W. Bush regime-change foreign policy (which was obviously supported by NeoNazis/military etc.) caused all of this (along with an assist from the Bush/Obama/Hillary administration that continued it).
D.C. 'Democrats' went along with Bush from day one (aumf) and sided with the NeoNazis then, and now we're inundated with NAZIS, WORLDWIDE.
A gift to the Nazis is a gift to the Nazis. And it doesn't help democrats (which should've been obvious from the beginning).
Mike Taylor
Those same Nazi assholes created the refugee crisis
to start with. And they know it. Right-wing assholes, be they liberal, conservative, libertarian, AnCap, etc. ALWAYS need to have a scapegoat. Pair that with 40 years of crushing austerity and you've got the perfect shitstorm for right-wing recruiting.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Macron 1er
doing his Jove 'bit', really didn't do his side any favours:
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Isn't that O in the seat next to M? -s-
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
@ggersh Hilarious LOL
Hilarious LOL
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Wish 5 star had come in first.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
As a single party 5Star *did* come in first.
It's the coalition of the extreme right, of which the Northern League is only the largest element, that outnumbered 5Star to have first shot at forming a government. And that coalition does not have a majority, so who knows what will transpire.
Guess I'm thinking about coalitions - a
perspective alien to our politics.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Meanwhile, in Germany, part of the Left has nothing better to do
than dox policemen and -women. (“Dox” = set people up as targets for violence by publishing their photos and home addresses.)
People were using Indymedia to dox police, giving the government a reason to seize the domain and file charges against unbekannt (unknown; “John Doe”) for incitement to criminal acts.
This newspaper editorial in the Green-Left-alternative Taz.de / die Tageszeitung seems to be inviting solidarity with Indymedia, leaving open whether doxxing police is a well-advised, legitimate tactic for the Left or not.
https://www.taz.de/Verbot-von-linksuntenindymediaorg/!5486607/
I say leave the Doxxing to the shit sites.
Leave that shit to 4chan, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. At least on those, that kind of shitty behavior is expected.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Chris Hedges has been warning about this for some time...
He saw it happen in the former Yugoslavia....