Europeans Voters Turn Against Left

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
Is that you in your avatar? You're purty

Yes, it is. You can call me Nom Anor. Now give us a kiss!

[DaShi]

Is it true that if a cournty is either predominantly left-wing or right-wing that it will always fly around in circles?

[Ned]

Europe, I believe, is still suffering from WWII. While it might have minor oscillations about a center, that center is well to the left of the United States. I attribute this to a severe reaction Europe's fascism in the mid 20th century.

We may now be seeing a true resetting of European politics back to the center, and by that I mean the US center.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Nice overlooking of the preceding 100 years of social and liberal tradition there, Ned....

[Roland]

Apart from the different political spectrums, there's another difference between US and euro politics.

Every ten years or so, we kick out the ruling party as a matter of political hygiene. If both big parties try to glue themselves to power, we punish both of them until they quit (Austria's big coalition, France's cohabitation). While the US is permanently living in a big coalition ripe with corruption - it is absolutely puzzling that no opposition arises. The only recent exception was Perot, and he used ****loads of money....

[KrazyHorse]

That's explained by the fundamental voter apathy in the US. Even with two choices it's hard enough for them to make up their minds...

Plus their checks and balances are so effective that their government has had 226 years of stalemate...

[Roland]

There was a lot more political mobility in the US in the 19th century, or the first half of the 20th century. I'd also say that "stalemate" is partial - it usually means that neither radical policies nor compromises on the merit pass, but compromises based on pork-addition.

[KrazyHorse]

Don't mind me; I'm just trolling...

[Roland]

Sadly enough, given the state of US politics, it is hard to tell....

[Buck Birdseed]

I personally think the third way is far from the saviour of the left, and rather what got us into this mess in the first place. But hey.

At least Sweden is heading for a huge centre-left majority in this next election... Mostly due to having such strong social movements that right-wing extremists haven't been able to gain a permanent foothold.

[Solly]

red jon,

I'm pro-capitalism, I just believe it needs to be limited. Monopolies are not capitalist.

But surely capitalism is about market competition. With monopolies the competition obviously isn't there, so it may as well be state-owned.

There are times when monopolies are in the best interests of the nation. Can you think of an example?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

In 1983, the declarations in the British media were "The Left is dead". Thatcher had won a landslide victory- the Labour party was horribly split and in desperate trouble, while the Liberals/Social Democrats alliance looked stillborn. It was hailed as the death of post-war consensus politics and a sea-change in British politics towards the right. We were told the the future would be variations on Thatcherism.

In 1997, the declarations were "The Right is dead". Labour had turned away from the left-wing approaches of the early 80's and grabbed the centre ground in a landslide victory. The Tories were horribly split over economic stances and over the EU and were brutally punished again in 2001. Now the Tories are firmly going for a consensus approach not a million miles away from their stance in the pre-Thatcher years.

So now the Left is dead again, is it? Well Labour are still in power, the Liberals have three times as many seats as they did 6 years ago and the Tories, even though they are playing the media game for all they're worth, still have the potential to hit the self-destruct button over Europe. They're also blessed with a leader who (to paraphrase Orwell) couldn't even be dignified with the title of "stuffed shirt". He's just a hole in the air.

The next election will be a close-run thing and there's certainly a chance that the Tories may be elected on a "cuddly conservatism" ticket, but that scarcely a sign of a shift to the right in the political spectrum. Viewed agaist the context of the last 25 years, a different story emerges, and it's not a new one.

[Lincoln]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
That's explained by the fundamental voter apathy in the US. Even with two choices it's hard enough for them to make up their minds...

Plus their checks and balances are so effective that their government has had 226 years of stalemate...

We like stalemate over here. Our politicians cannot do as much damage when they are in gridlock.

[Buck Birdseed]

Er, with all due respect Trappist, who gives a f*ck about britain?

[Immortal Wombat]

Brits