Posted on 10/04/2009 5:44:37 PM PDT by Saije
Just when you might think capitalism’s global crisis would breathe new life into the left, it’s looking increasingly divided and tired.
The reelection of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany a week ago is highlighting a conservative surge in her country and Europe’s other powerhouse economies - Britain, France, and Italy - where the center-right is either firmly in power or about to get there.
What happened?
Much of the answer lies in the nature of modern European politics, where even the most ardent conservatives can still embrace social welfare policies that would seem leftist to Americans. And in recent years, European center-right parties have mastered a certain political alchemy in co-opting some of the left’s best ideas.
The result is that what would be hot-button issues in the United States - abortion, gun control, gay rights, or state-guaranteed health care - have long ceased to rile voters in Europe.
Conservatives “have taken a page right out of Bill Clinton’s playbook, and that’s triangulation,’’ said Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Clinton brought the US Democrats toward more laissez-faire economic policies, as did Britain’s Tony Blair when his Labor Party ousted the Tories in 1997. Now European conservatives have done it in reverse - “taken the socialist agenda and claimed it as their own,’’ Conley said.
The left’s slide began well before the global recession discredited the right’s faith in free markets and light regulation. The surprise, to some, is that Europeans seem to have more faith in conservatives to solve the crisis.
“In times of insecurity, the right has credibility,’’ said Enrico de Bernart, a 43-year-old man window-shopping near the Pantheon in Rome. “People trust the right or center-right even if you don’t like their objectives.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Klintoon was drifting left till the GOP took Congress in 1996 and brought the US back to the center. The US never went center right. It’s all spin and hot air. We are miles away from a center right gov’t. No lefty ideas stand the test of time. The author is an idiot.
Ping.
“Pity Europe’s Socialists. It’s getting lonely on the left.”
Who would have thunk it!!
Well Greece has come to their rescue - and of course they can always seek refuge in Obamaland!
Europe is moving to the right because Socialism is proving a dismal failure, and there is no way to move but right, first the center, and eventually to smaller, limited government. the alternative is totalitarian lunacy, much like our idiots are trying to get here. Let’s just hope that what we see in Europe isn’t a variation of the two steps forward, one step back formula for social/economic destruction. Commies never give up.
European lefties aren’t lonely; they get at least two two socialist parties to choose from. One of them is called center-left, while the other is called center-right - and there’s no other way to tell the two apart.
Kind of like THE Democrat Socialists and the Republican Socialist-lite here in America!
Unless and until the Republican party dumps the RINOs, we’re not that different here in the US. Think about it, is there a political party that actually wants to send illegal aliens back to their country of origin? Is there a political party that will admit that Social Security is a) unconstitutional and b) broke? Even when Ronnie was President, did we actually close down cabinet level government agencies? The lesser of two evils, is still evil. I’ve lived long enough not to go for a Perot, and end up with a Clinton instead. That said, we need a conservative party, and we don’t truly have one now.
Inching along, I guess unless you live in one of the former Communist Eastern European nations, then you will embrace RINOism (or the European equivalent)!
Too bad, If I were European I would still be a traditional conservative (though not a European Monarchist), and a Euroskeptic. What was once the defender of the faith in Jesus Christ, is now socialist-marxist or down right satanic..so sad!
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