What is disappearing is not the egalitarian "left". What is disappearing is the political center, the "muddle through it", don't make any serious changes, "steady as she goes", "just keep me employed and my groceries and gasoline cheap" center.
Why is this center disappearing? Because in order for the center to hold - as it mostly did in the three decades after WWII - you need a stable environment, cheap & reliable energy and food supplies, dependable allies, a trust in government institutions including the courts, a relatively egalitarian society where the wealthiest make no more than 25X or the lowest paid, where education and healthcare are affordable, where the national debt is manageable. To put it mildly: That has all changed. We are living under increasingly extreme conditions, and not just with climate. Hoping we can go back to some stable centrist vision is largely delusional. I wish it weren't but this is just where we are as a nation.
If we ever want to see moderate politics again, we need to create a stable society and planet and in order to do that, we need to be willing to embrace or at least accept far more rapid changes.
I agree with Paul Embery's critique . But the question is why are the left wing parties not following anything like that, but going in the opposite direction? Two questions: Why is "populism" a bad word ? Doesn't populism mean "the people" and mean that government should have policies that benefit the people ( rather than the elites, the oligarchs and big business)? ( what a novel idea).
Second question: What if the real divide is not left/right ? What if it is a choice between ever increasing control of health, economy, cultural, social life by technocratic bureaucratic elite (left wing project) vs. smaller government that respects the rights of citizens to have some autonomy and agency over their own lives and choices (populist project? libertarian?). Some countries don't even have that choice on offer and often its not a "pure" choice.
In the USA I would say we are faced with a choice between the increasingly totalitarian vision of the democrats ( very very bad) and the somewhat less totalitarian ( chaotic and somewhat incoherent) vision of the republicans who are now led by Donald Trump ( bad, but less bad).
RFK Jr put it well when he said that we are living in a society with a corrupt fusion of big government power and big corporate power. That's called fascism, with a democratic or a republican president. The military industrial big tech surveillance complex is one case study .
Well one sure cure is to pay off the debt of the college educated by taxing Walmart workers.
What is disappearing is not the egalitarian "left". What is disappearing is the political center, the "muddle through it", don't make any serious changes, "steady as she goes", "just keep me employed and my groceries and gasoline cheap" center.
Why is this center disappearing? Because in order for the center to hold - as it mostly did in the three decades after WWII - you need a stable environment, cheap & reliable energy and food supplies, dependable allies, a trust in government institutions including the courts, a relatively egalitarian society where the wealthiest make no more than 25X or the lowest paid, where education and healthcare are affordable, where the national debt is manageable. To put it mildly: That has all changed. We are living under increasingly extreme conditions, and not just with climate. Hoping we can go back to some stable centrist vision is largely delusional. I wish it weren't but this is just where we are as a nation.
If we ever want to see moderate politics again, we need to create a stable society and planet and in order to do that, we need to be willing to embrace or at least accept far more rapid changes.
I agree with Paul Embery's critique . But the question is why are the left wing parties not following anything like that, but going in the opposite direction? Two questions: Why is "populism" a bad word ? Doesn't populism mean "the people" and mean that government should have policies that benefit the people ( rather than the elites, the oligarchs and big business)? ( what a novel idea).
Second question: What if the real divide is not left/right ? What if it is a choice between ever increasing control of health, economy, cultural, social life by technocratic bureaucratic elite (left wing project) vs. smaller government that respects the rights of citizens to have some autonomy and agency over their own lives and choices (populist project? libertarian?). Some countries don't even have that choice on offer and often its not a "pure" choice.
In the USA I would say we are faced with a choice between the increasingly totalitarian vision of the democrats ( very very bad) and the somewhat less totalitarian ( chaotic and somewhat incoherent) vision of the republicans who are now led by Donald Trump ( bad, but less bad).
RFK Jr put it well when he said that we are living in a society with a corrupt fusion of big government power and big corporate power. That's called fascism, with a democratic or a republican president. The military industrial big tech surveillance complex is one case study .
Paul Embry for President! Do we even have one of him??? I'd stand in the cold rain for hours in a bikini to vote for him or her.
Finally.