Seeing recent election results in other countries, does it appear that Europe's conservatives are the better socialists? At least that's what the recent New York Times article, "In Bad Times for Capitalism, Socialists in Europe Suffer" says.
In 1957, the German conservatives went into the federal election with the slogan "No Experiments". This was at a time when massive economic changes made every political move an experiment anyway, but I digress. In 2009, the slogan "We Have the Strength" - intriguingly, a loose translation of Obama's "Yes We Can" - hands German conservatives a big win.
"No Experiments" can still be heard from conservative politians, although the failure of financial markets makes the need for reforms obvious. Record bailouts, carried by conservatives and liberals alike, show that this need is recognized and met. What then makes "No Experiments" so successful?
Germany has turned grayish-blackTo quote the NYT article,
This statement makes some big assumptions on what voters think, but be that as it may. Could it be that socialists have turned from reformers into defenders of the social support systems' status quo because they were gullible enough to allow conservatives to tell them what not to think in the wake of the collapse of the eastern bloc? Not to speak of the unrelenting onslaught of the neo-liberal reform agenda that seems to preclude any extension of these systems since Reagan and Thatcher dominated the west. After conservative outrage at the thought, German Social Democrats (SPD) excluded cooperation with the Left Party (a coalition of western socialists disappointed by their party's right-shift and eastern post-communists). By doing this, the SPD made themselves an impotent appendage of the conservatives. At the same time, they failed to recognize that, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, conservatives give post-communists much less credit for their ability for democratic reform than they gave their own former Nazi members only five years after the war.
The NYT article further quotes Giovanni Sartori as saying
This statement is, however, based on the assumption that society as a whole values profits higher than lifestyle. Seeing as, even in the boom before the bust, only the highest 10% of German incomes saw an increase*, the purported view that socialists are losing their basic electorate is a myth. A bank teller is no less a worker than her manual labour compatriot, even though she might over-ambitiously vote like her bank's CEO. The real question is, through what deception do conservative parties manage to coax a majority to vote against their own interests?
To reclaim their voter base, left-wing parties need to liberate themselves from the denkverbot/crimethink laws set by conservatives and find common ground with partners in other parties everywhere. They need to build their own forward-facing reform agenda adapted to modern conditions, giving the common man chances to profit from the efficiency gains of globalization just as much as the corporation. The discussion among socialists in the coming years will be interesting. It remains to be seen whether the right wing of the SPD will relinquish the power they have easily.
Food for thought, if corporations sell movie dics so cheaply in east asia, why can't you buy them at asian market prices over the internet and play them in your player in the west? (Technical answer: because they have a region code. How is it that region codes are ok?)
* Sources:
Einkommen stagnieren - nur die Reichen werden reicher
Die Mittelschicht schrumpft
Studie: Aufschwung an meisten Haushalten vorbeigegangen
In 1957, the German conservatives went into the federal election with the slogan "No Experiments". This was at a time when massive economic changes made every political move an experiment anyway, but I digress. In 2009, the slogan "We Have the Strength" - intriguingly, a loose translation of Obama's "Yes We Can" - hands German conservatives a big win.
"No Experiments" can still be heard from conservative politians, although the failure of financial markets makes the need for reforms obvious. Record bailouts, carried by conservatives and liberals alike, show that this need is recognized and met. What then makes "No Experiments" so successful?
Germany has turned grayish-black
The Socialists have, in this contest, become conservatives, fighting to preserve systems that voters think need to be improved, though not abandoned.
This statement makes some big assumptions on what voters think, but be that as it may. Could it be that socialists have turned from reformers into defenders of the social support systems' status quo because they were gullible enough to allow conservatives to tell them what not to think in the wake of the collapse of the eastern bloc? Not to speak of the unrelenting onslaught of the neo-liberal reform agenda that seems to preclude any extension of these systems since Reagan and Thatcher dominated the west. After conservative outrage at the thought, German Social Democrats (SPD) excluded cooperation with the Left Party (a coalition of western socialists disappointed by their party's right-shift and eastern post-communists). By doing this, the SPD made themselves an impotent appendage of the conservatives. At the same time, they failed to recognize that, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, conservatives give post-communists much less credit for their ability for democratic reform than they gave their own former Nazi members only five years after the war.
The NYT article further quotes Giovanni Sartori as saying
The Socialists can’t adapt to the loss of their basic electorate, and with globalism, the welfare state can no longer exist in the same way
This statement is, however, based on the assumption that society as a whole values profits higher than lifestyle. Seeing as, even in the boom before the bust, only the highest 10% of German incomes saw an increase*, the purported view that socialists are losing their basic electorate is a myth. A bank teller is no less a worker than her manual labour compatriot, even though she might over-ambitiously vote like her bank's CEO. The real question is, through what deception do conservative parties manage to coax a majority to vote against their own interests?
To reclaim their voter base, left-wing parties need to liberate themselves from the denkverbot/crimethink laws set by conservatives and find common ground with partners in other parties everywhere. They need to build their own forward-facing reform agenda adapted to modern conditions, giving the common man chances to profit from the efficiency gains of globalization just as much as the corporation. The discussion among socialists in the coming years will be interesting. It remains to be seen whether the right wing of the SPD will relinquish the power they have easily.
Food for thought, if corporations sell movie dics so cheaply in east asia, why can't you buy them at asian market prices over the internet and play them in your player in the west? (Technical answer: because they have a region code. How is it that region codes are ok?)
* Sources:
Einkommen stagnieren - nur die Reichen werden reicher
Die Mittelschicht schrumpft
Studie: Aufschwung an meisten Haushalten vorbeigegangen
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