Europe's Deflation Torture is a Gift to the Far LEFT

[LBJDemocrat]

" Perma-slump has already chipped at the left flank of the ruling Socialists in Portugal. The Communist Party (PCP) and the Maoists and Trotskyists of the Left Bloc together won 18pc of the vote in September 2009, leaving premier Jose Socrates with the lonely task of enforcing yet more austerity by minority government. ...

Portugual is not unique. I spent Saturday delving into the subcultures of Italy’s Rifondazione Comunista, Spain’s Izquierda Unida, Olivier Besancenot’s Parti Anti-Capitaliste in France, and Germany’s Linke (Left). While it is too early to talk of a pan-European revolt against EMU-deflation, the Left is starting to offer the only coherent critique of what has gone wrong with monetary union and why there can be no durable solution until the EU creates full fiscal union (which creates its own problems of permanent subsidies, as from Ostrogoth Padania to Berber Sicily under the lira) or until this latter day Gold Standard is broken into viable halves. ..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7756879/Europes-deflation-torture-is-a-gift-to-the-Far-Left.html

At least Europe's Left has the ability to push and pressure their neoliberal Third Way governments for progressive reforms outside a two-party duopoly.

[ShortnFiery]

1. Yes, Europe has REAL left of center political parties.

Since Perot ran an lost, the USA firmed up into ONE right wing duopoly. :(

http://www.counterpunch.org/kuzminski08182004.html

The minority status of the Democratic Party was disguised by its lingering control of Congress (until 1994) and the fluke election (thanks to Ross Perot) of Bill Clinton. Social activists and progressives of various sorts remained the party's base, even as party leaders, embodied in the Democratic Leadership Council, sensing the limited electoral appeal of the progressive agenda, steadily drifted to the right. Their failure to rearticulate a compelling vision of social justice and democracy sealed the party's fate. Conservative attacks on 'big government,' and their promotion of 'deregulation' not only of much of the economy but of campaign financing, solidified the corruption of the political process. As early as the Carter years, conservatives captured the leadership of the Democratic as well as the Republican parties, and created the two-party, right-wing duopoly which now confronts us.

[Greyhound]

2. Perhaps the author is younger or has some other reasons, but the take-over of the Democratic Party

by the reich-wing authoritarians was blatant in 1968 and every national election since then has been about the illusion of choice.

[LBJDemocrat]

3. I was fooled in 2008

I admit I really bought into it.

[Greyhound]

6. And it seems to frequently come out of Chicago...

Daley

The "Chicago School"

Now this,

hmmm...
:kick:

[ShortnFiery]

5. Excellent point to consider. eom

[socialist_n_TN]

4. Well good for them. However, it's easier

to influence policy under a parlimentary system of government. 18% would be a SIZABLE bloc in the US Congress and in the representation in Cabinet level positions in a Parlimentary style of government.

I will say that if it happens in Europe, it SHOULD make it easier to implement here.