[Peace-discuss] Populism in Germany

[C G Estabrook]

Thanks, Dianna. I’d say the bigger, better fix would be socialism; an immediate universal basic income would be a stopgap in a situation of runaway inequality and majority immiseration.

Pending an economy run for people rather than profit, we could begin by bringing all troops (and weapons) home and establishing social supports - free healthcare, education, child supports, etc.

It’s hard to see how the very real dangers of climate change can be dealt with by capitalism - there’s no money is saving the planet, only despoiling it.

I think the populist transformation of left-right politics may offer some hope.

Regards, Carl


> On Aug 8, 2018, at 11:34 AM, Dianna Visek <divisek at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Carl,
> 
> I think this is an excellent overview of the situation.  
> 
> The German quote says,  "The SPD appears to be in long-term decline, like its social-democratic sister parties elsewhere in Europe: stuck in industrial-era mentalities, with no ideas for the post-industrial information age . . ."
> 
> This is the crux of the matter.  Climate change isn't enough of a platform.  And neither is income redistribution.  There needs to be a bigger, better fix.
> 
> Dianna
> 
> On Wednesday, August 8, 2018, 8:03:21 AM CDT, C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> More indication that the left-right classification of political parties doesn’t work very well any more. 
> 
> The major political division is now populism vs. corporate globalism. In "Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy" (2008), Albertazzi & McDonnell describe populism as an ideology that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.” 
> 
> The Republican and Democrat parties (and their equivalents elsewhere) have been neoliberal ( = corporate globalist) since the Carter administration.
> 
> Cf. Italy, where a populist government (a 'left-right coalition’) has ousted the two corporate globalist parties ( = Republicans and Democrats). The same could happen in Germany (and elsewhere).
> 
> The Sanders campaign, the Trump campaign, Brexit, Le Pen and Melenchon et al. are populist manifestations.  
> 
> ===================
> From Handelsblatt 8/8/18:
> 
> * * * Many foreign observers of Germany know that a populist party, called the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was founded in 2013 and entered parliament in 2017, has been growing on the far right. It is at 15 percent in the most recent survey by Emnid, one of Germany’s big polling outfits. That fits neatly into a bigger narrative of rising populism in the Western world. 
> 
> Less noticed, but at least as interesting, is a concomitant rise on the left of the Green Party. They got just short of 9 percent in last September’s general election. But in the same Emnid poll, they are now also at 15 percent, exactly equal with the AfD and only a hair behind the Social Democrats (SPD) at 18 percent. Manfred Güllner of Forsa, another leading German pollster, thinks that the Greens will eventually pass the SPD to become Germany’s leading center-left party.
> 
> That has Berlin’s wonks talking. The SPD appears to be in long-term decline, like its social-democratic sister parties elsewhere in Europe: stuck in industrial-era mentalities, with no ideas for the post-industrial information age, and with its traditional blue-collar workers defecting to the AfD. 
> 
> By contrast, the Greens have always appealed more to the well-heeled and well-educated middle classes and even elites. They never did well when they pretended to be radical lefties marching under the banner of soak-the-rich redistribution. But now they’re rallying behind moderate, sensible and responsible party leaders like Robert Habeck (pictured), with a message that climate change is the greatest threat to humanity. 
> 
> What does the rise of the Greens mean? Above all, that the narrative of a general right-ward or even populist shift was too simple. The Greens also stand for the “welcome culture” toward refugees and immigrants that has allegedly gone out of fashion. They may become a force to be reckoned with, not only counterbalancing the AfD but also forming future coalition governments and setting actual policy.
> ===================== 
> 
> —CGE
>     
> 
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