Another thing that the neolibs and centrist democrats are being smarmy about is the German election results. Basically, a lot of the snarkiness comes from the failure of "Die Linke", or "the left", which is Germany's far left borderline communist party. They like to link that stuff to Sanders supporters and people to the left of them, and just...no.
Before I begin let me remind people of my views. While there was a short phase on this blog I was somewhat curious about socialism, I've generally speaking always had a leery skepticism of it due to my conservative days and pragmatic, policy oriented nature. The thing is, while I am open to market socialism, I don't think it's the end all of politics, and the more hardcore anti capitalist versions that want to abolish markets come off as scary. Still, I recognize there are many degrees of politics between neoliberals and literal communists, and theres many shades of politics that exist between those extremes. And that's kind of the point of this article, to discuss the results, the parties that won and lost, and explain where they are on the spectrum. So let's begin.
The big winners were the SPD, which is the social democratic party. And looking at what they're for, they're basically a mainstream social democratic party that I would describe as being to the democrats' left. It was originally a Marxist party, but then it moderated over time and is split between keynesian social democrats (think FDR), and more moderate people who might be more in line with democrats. Still, the left wing influences on the policy within the party are apparent, and tend to be for a generous welfare state, economic regulation, and all that jazz. Honestly, while I could see myself voting for the SPD, I can't imagine many neolibs circlejerking about Die Linke losing would.
Who would they vote for? Well, that's easy, the second largest faction in the new government.
This is a coalition of the Christian democratic union and the Christian social union of Bavaria. Essentially this is an economically center right party. On social issues, they are somewhat conservative, but they are also fairly pro EU, so there are some differences between say, the conservative party in the UK. Essentially, this is what I would compare democrats/neoliberal to. Angela Merkel, for those familiar with her politics, is from this party. And I want to emphasize, this is the mainstream CONSERVATIVE party. Democrats in the US are literally moderate right wingers in Europe. But yeah, they are the second largest party in Germany combined, and represent a formidable coalition. While the SPD got 26% of the vote, these guys got 24%, so they're no slouches.
Yes, the freaking GREEN PARTY is the third largest party in Germany with 15% of the vote. We should have an idea already what the greens are about as they seem to exist in every western country in some form. The German version seems to focus primarily on social justice activism and environmentalism. They seem a bit more moderate than the US's green party on economics, but they're still solidly liberal it seems.
These guys won 12% of the vote and are essentially right libertarians/"classical liberals". Essentially they are laissez faire on economics, but on social issues are extremely progressive. See how powerful even the libertarian party could be if we didn't have the two party system in America.
Do you want to *cough* Make Germany Great Again? AFG is a far right conservative party that is a mixture of tea partyism and Trumpism. Said to have associated with neo-nazis. Basically, this is the republican party in the US these days. They got 10% support. See how weak the GOP could be if we had a multiparty system in America.
This is the party the neolibs are laughing about imploding. These guys are a full on democratic socialist party. Their coalition ranges from communists to social democrats and tend to be a catch all for the far left of the political spectrum. They only got 5% of the vote, and apparently had a lot of their voters leave for other parties, including the AFG for some reason. So they didn't really have a strong voter base in the first place.
Analysis
There are other parties, but they're relatively minor and didn't win many seats or get substantive parts of the vote. Looking at Germany's political system, they have a healthy variety of choices. And given that variety, there's a lot of overlap and competing for various demographics. Social democrats are the biggest faction, with a moderate right wing party being the second party. Hardcore right, and left wing politics have support, but it's small. Most vote for more moderate parties, and they probably make people happy.
I mean just to comment on Die Linke losing, I don't see much of a point in supporting them. They attract all the left wing extremists, but apparently don't seem to have much that meaningfully differentiates them from the more mainstream SPD. And I'd imagine unless you are hardcore on "socialism" and "communism' and far leftism, you really wouldn't have much of a reason to support such a party.
I mean, if I were voting in the German elections and had to choose between the 6 parties, I'd most likely vote SPD, given the greens don't explicitly support UBI. It just fits my politics best. But, in America, I'd easily take Bernie over the craplibs in the democratic party, who sound like conservatives from Merkel's Christian Democratic Union to me. Because that's how screwed our political spectrum is in America. It's an election between the CDU/CSU and the AFG. That's how screwed we are. The only reason Bernie as a democratic socialst has the support he does as a democratic socialist is because socdems and anyone between that center right mentality and the far left have nowhere to go and are forced to choose. I always say Bernie supporters and Biden supporters shouldn't even be in the same party, and in the German system, there's at least one, if not two degrees of separation between those extremes.
To be honest though, given Germany DOES have such a wide variety of parties, including relatively minor parties, my ideal party actually would be one of those. Being Yang Gang, I'd actually be supporting the Basic Income Alliance as my first choice, with SPD being my second more mainstream choice. Gotta support that basic income, and in a more European system where they're actually further left in the first place I'd be more comfortable voting my ideals than even in America (keep in mind despite democrats acting like I'm an ideologue I actually compromise a lot to get some progress).
But yeah, it's always fun watching neolibs circlejerk about the left losing, when they don't seem to realize in European countries their ideologies and policies more closely resemble center right parties than anything on the left. I'm "far left" in America, but if I were in Europe I'd actually only be center left.
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