I am writing this in response to the Ambrose Evans-Pritchard article that Tom posted earlier. Pritchard makes an excellent yet very disturbing observation that the left has not merely become ineffective, but has morphed into the "enforcer of the policies of the right," and those policies, which everybody knows, are the policies of plutocracy, inequality, war, an ever-expanding police, carceral and surveillance state.
Forty years ago this would have been unthinkable. Even three years ago this would have been unthinkable. After Obama's second election victory here in the United States the pundits were declaring the Republican Party as dead and the conservative movement in general as history. Yet only two years later they went on to win sweeping victories in the 2014 midterm elections.
Recent losses by the liberals in the U.S. have a lot to do with Obama, let's be honest. His embrace and protection of the corporate class, the laissez-faire attitude his administration took toward Wall Street criminality, his support of tax cuts for the rich, the lack of any real aggressive jobs program, the backing of austerity, his push for grand bargains to cut Social Security and of course, Obamacare, which was seen, correclty in my view, as a huge giveaway to insurance companies, were all at least partially responsible for extremely high levels of voter dissatisfaction on both sides that led to the violent shift to the right.
The media, partically Fox News, was also very effective in branding Obama and his policies as liberal and socialist even though they were clearly in the favor of large moneyed interests and big corporations, but the public didn't see it that way and the left and the "liberal media" (if there is such a thing) had no answer.
Even though just about every metric of middle class well-being has collapsed under Obama the decline started long ago. It has been in progress for at least forty years if not longer. You can begin by tracing it back to Jimmy Carter and his moves at deregulation, which was one of the original tenets of Milton Friedman neoliberalism.
Of course this followed with the Reagan-Thatcher era, where the doctrine broadened to include Europe. Once again these leaders and their newly created and well-endowed propaganda organizations, the "think tanks," effectively derided the policies of the left, branded them as failed and limiting and basically re-wrote history.
Bill Clinton accelerated the trend by creating the first of what was to become the "faux left," a Trojan Horse by any other name, which was "left" or "Democratic" in title only. Clinton backed with unrestricted zeal the removal of all restrictions and regulations on the financial sector, which unleashed a level of financial speculation that we hadn't seen in at least 70 years. He pushed through welfare reform, which was nothing of the sort, but rather, a redistribution of government financial support to the wealthy and big business and away from the truly needy. He introduced mandatory sentencing for many sorts of minor drug offenses and the prison population skyrocketed. His trade deals, NAFTA in particular, led to huge job outsourcing and of course how can we not forget his balancing of the budget, which caused private sector household savings to collapse and debt levels to skyrocket, something that still burdens a huge segment of the citizenry today.
Clinton was, and still is, a disaster. He quitely backs cuts to Social Security and other social safety nets by praising the crazy aims of the Simpson-Bowles commission. And, unbelievably, we may even be on the verge of electing another Clinton next year who despite her rhetoric is sure to bring the same policies her husband brought if she wins the White House. This is the left's chosen candidate!!!
FYI...Hillary was silent on the passage of fast track for the Trans Pacific Partnership, recently. What does that say about her position on trade, big business and job outsourcing, hmm? She is a consummate corporate insider and she and her husband have reaped millions in speaking fees from big business and the moneyed crowd so they're not about to shy away from them.
Pritchard went on to say this in his article:
"We Conservatives have watched in disbelief as one Socialist party after another immolates itself on the altar of monetary union, defending a project that favours the elites - a 'bankers' ramp', as the old Left used to call it."
"We have watched our friends on the Left apologise for 1930s policies. We have seen them defend a regime of pro-cyclical fiscal cuts imposed on the whole eurozone by a handful of "Ordoliberal" reactionaries in the German finance minstry."
Pritchard is speaking of Europe here, but his words ring true not just in Europe but everywhere. "Apologize for the policies of the 1930?" This is truly unbelievable that the left has run away from these policies? Why? They stopped a world depression dead in its tracks, lifted millions out of poverty and won a World War.
The left truly has "immolated" itself as he says.
I for one do not see a resurrection of the left anytime soon. It's nice that we have a guy like Bernie Sanders running for president here in the U.S. but what chance does he have? Still, you gotta respect a person that can publicly call himself a Democratic Socialist with a straight face in today's rabid conservative climate. My god, it's almost unbelievable that any serious sitting Senator would have the guts to ascribe that term to themselves, let alone run for president. It's refreshing. Even so, the left establishment bashes him. They hate him. The very people who share the same principles and ideals that he shares and which, harken back to the glory days of the Democratic Party...they despise him! Go figure.
It's true that the right must be sitting there watching in astonishment at how the left is not only self-destructing, but also how easy it is to get liberals to do the bidding of conservatives. Bernie Sanders is a breath of fresh air, but again, he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected.
I am afraid the left's descent into the enforcer of the conservative will, will in fact continue and that should not only be a disappointment to anyone who stands on the side of equality and democratic values, but it should also be something very scary. When there is no countervailing force anymore and when the side in control has moved so far to the extreme and has the ability to snuff out the other side's proposals without as much as lifting a finger then we are in trouble. The system has become dangerously corrupt.
