Author Topic: death of the Socialist Left  (Read 739 times)

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BT

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death of the Socialist Left
« on: August 02, 2011, 02:30:00 AM »
The real story of the US debt deal is not the triumph of the Tea Party but the death of the Socialist Left

By Toby Young US politics Last updated: August 2nd, 2011


For British conservatives, the US debt deal is a thing of beauty. Under the terms of the deal, the federal government will cut spending by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years and there won?t be any corresponding increase in taxation. That is to say, the American Government has agreed to tackle its deficit by spending cuts alone. The British Government, by contrast, is planning to cut its deficit through a combination of spending cuts and tax rises ? and it?s cutting it by a smaller amount.

Even if the Tory Party had won an overall majority at the last election, it?s hard to imagine it adopting such a bold fiscal policy. Yet the American Government is on the verge of adopting this plan in spite of the fact that the Democrats control the Senate and the White House. A year ago, American conservatives were showering David Cameron with praise for adopting such a radical approach to reducing Britain?s deficit and contrasting him unfavourably with their own spendthrift President. Now, our Prime Minister looks like a weak-kneed liberal in contrast to the hard-headed Obama. Whatever happened to the stimulus?

Most pundits are crediting this U-turn to the political muscle of the Tea Party and it?s true that President Obama would never have agreed to this deal if the Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives hadn?t engaged in the brinkmanship of the past few weeks. But to focus on the Tea Party is to ignore the tectonic political shift that?s taken place, not just in America but across Europe. The majority of citizens in nearly all the world?s most developed countries simply aren?t prepared to tolerate the degree of borrowing required to sustain generous welfare programmes any longer.

As I pointed out in a blog post last May, tax-and-spend Left-wing parties have fared poorly in election after election over the past two years:

    Labour was punished by the British electorate last year, polling its lowest share of the vote since 1983, but not as severely as the Social Democrats were by the Swedes, polling their lowest share of the vote since universal suffrage was introduced in 1921?

    The same picture emerges wherever you look. In the European election in June, 2009, the Left took a hammering. In Germany, the Social Democrats polled just 20 per cent of the vote, their worst result since the Second World War. In France, the Socialist Party only mustered 16.5 per cent, its lowest share of the vote in a European election since 1994. In Italy, the Democrats polled 26.1 per cent, seven percentage points less than they received at the last Italian election. As David Miliband pointed out in a recent lecture: ?Left parties are losing elections more comprehensively than ever before. They are fragmenting at just the time the Right is uniting. I don?t believe this is some kind of accident.?

For believers in redistributive taxation and egalitarian social programmes like David Miliband, Obama was the last great hope. Here was a centre left politician capable of building the kind of electoral coalition that underpinned the massive expansions of state power in Britain and America, from Attlee?s post-war Labour Government to Lyndon Johnson?s Great Society. That is, a coalition of the white working class, minorities and middle class liberals. Yet in spite of sweeping to power in 2008 and ensuring the Democrats won in both the House and the Senate, Obama has proved unable to sustain that coalition. Last night?s debt deal represents the moment when he acknowledged that trying to maintain the levels of public spending required to fund ambitious welfare programmes is political suicide. Which is why the deal has been greated with cries of impotent rage by the British Left.

In both Britain and America, the Left has been reduced to hoping that cutting public spending on this scale will snuff out economic growth and plunge our respective economies back into recession. Not only will the Coalition be turfed out as a consequence, but if Obama can somehow blame the Tea Party for the ?double dip? he might be able to persuade the people to grant him four more years. What the Left hasn?t grasped ? and what Obama has ? is that for the foreseeable future no political candidate or party will be able to increase public spending and win re-election. Socialist welfare programmes have become politically toxic. A sea change has taken place within the West?s most developed countries and last night?s debt deal is a reflection of that.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100099357/the-real-story-of-the-us-debt-deal-is-not-the-triumph-of-the-tea-party-but-the-death-of-the-socialist-left/

Christians4LessGvt

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Re: death of the Socialist Left
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2011, 10:07:55 AM »
interesting stuff
but i am reluctant to say the "death" or "end" of anything
when Obama swept into power---all we heard was a new day was beginning
we heard how the democrats controlled almost everything....
some wondered about the future of the Republican Party...
oh how things can change....

but i am more pessimistic that both parties dont have
the will to halt the insanity that rules the day in Washington
the insanity of spending trillions and trillions you dont have

so we will get a series of what i call "greener pasture" elections
the people will basically play tennis...
going back and forth between the two parties
the people and the politicians both really dont have the will to make the hard choices
so the people pretend they are upset and vote in the other side promising to fix it all
it's called politics....and it ain't pretty!



« Last Edit: August 02, 2011, 10:28:37 AM by Christians4LessGvt »
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Kramer

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Re: death of the Socialist Left
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2011, 11:23:32 AM »
Leftist politicians particularly, and even other brands of politicians, are in panic mode right now because they know there isn't any money to bring home to their districts, which in turn means it will be much more difficult to buy reelections. Because these Leftists have lost the ability to bribe the masses through government giveaway programs their constituents won't be happy with them, thus they will lose their power seats at the elite ruling class dinner table.

Plane

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Re: death of the Socialist Left
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2011, 05:31:31 PM »
Quote
In both Britain and America, the Left has been reduced to hoping that cutting public spending on this scale will ....


  Is it ,like..., a secret that the new budget will be larger next year than last?

    The "cuts" are Washington cuts an increse in spending is called a cut because it is a "cut" below the projected increase.

    Is it a , kinda..., secret that the national debt has increased for every president since Van Buren?