"I think the old categories are gone. I see no virtue to them. . . . We live in exciting times. There's no question about it. It's been a long process. I think I met my first libertarians back in the early 70s. I've seen these shivering of the old categories go by the board over this period."
In his column today, Thomas Friedman discusses how the old categories are gone. (In a recent Beat the Devil column, Cockburn called him an idiot or something similar, as did Nader in his speech last Sunday.) Notice how The Nation has made the big time. Also, Friedman's journals of choice are "Wired magazine, Fast Company and Red Herring." How often have they pushed the cause of "repairing the social safety net"?! And "former Fascists who want to help the poor South." Huh?
New York Times/Opinions April 21, 2000 FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN The Politics of Primavera
ROME -- If Italian politics were a pasta it would be, without question, primavera -- all sorts of vegetables, or in Italy's case all sorts of parties, mixed together with no rhyme or reason. The broccoli's thrown in next to the carrots, the former Communists with the capitalists, and most of all, says the Italian commentator Lucio Caracciolo, no beef anywhere.
In case you missed it, Italy's prime minister, Massimo D'Alema, resigned Wednesday after his center-left coalition was trounced in regional elections by the center-right coalition led by the "Go Italy" party of the media baron and former lounge singer Silvio Berlusconi. What were the issues? Hmmmm. Mr. Berlusconi's party, named after a soccer chant, was described by one Italian commentator in La Repubblica as "united in the cult of the leader and the ideology of television."
Italian politics is a perfect illustration of what happens when you move from cold-war politics to globalization politics and the parties don't quite adjust. All the parties here know that under the pressure of globalization, Italy has to stay within the strict budgetary guidelines of the European Monetary Union and that the real issues revolve around the pace and extent to which Italy globalizes. But in this new play, Italian parties are still wearing their old masks, and are jumbled together in left-right coalitions that make no real sense.
Mr. D'Alema's center-left group includes Catholics, former Christian Democrats and reformed Communists who are now advocates of Italy's globalizing -- alongside Italy's major unions, which hate the European Union and everything associated with globalization that might threaten their welfare benefits. Mr. Berlusconi's center-right group has Thatcherite free-marketers along with Northern Leaguers, who want to secede from Italy, as well as former Fascists who want to help the poor South and hate the E.U. Got that?
Hey, U.S. politics is just as jumbled. We and the Italians both need a four-party system. If America had a four-party system it would look like this:
1. The Wall Party: The Walls would be led by Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader and would include the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Green Party and all those Americans who would prefer a cold-war-like world of walls -- where U.S. workers were not so threatened by low-wage countries, where multinationals couldn't expand and threaten the environment so widely, and where a more regulated economy made for a less prosperous, but tamer, world and for a more isolated America. The Walls' symbol would be the Berlin Wall, and their official journals would be Mother Jones, Guns and Ammo, Sierra magazine and The Nation.
2. The Web Party: The Webs would be led by the real Al Gore, and would advocate expanding Nafta and global integration. Their thrust would be to align America with the new economy while repairing our safety nets and retraining workers to better compete rather than putting up walls. The Webs would include all the U.S. high-tech and service workers. Their symbol would be WWW and their official journals would be Wired magazine, Fast Company and Red Herring.
3. The American Hezbollah: American Hezbollah, or Party of God, would be led by Pat Robertson and would be focused on anti-abortionism and bringing God into public school and public life. Its symbol would be the cross and its news organ the Christian Broadcast Network.
4. The Let-Them-Eat-Cake Party: The Cakers believe in winner-take-all, loser-take-care-of-yourself. They are led by the real George W. Bush, and their ranks are drawn from Wall Street and all the dot-commers and libertarians in Silicon Valley who think we should shrink government and let the Nasdaq and computers rule. Their symbol is a thin slice of cake, and their official organs are The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
What Italian and U.S. parties now have in common is that they can't get elected without their weird coalitions and they can't rule anymore with them. Because in the age of globalization, our old two-party coalitions are not just made up of different shades of the same color -- they are now made of totally contradictory forces. The Democratic A.F.L.-C.I.O. is now the leading force against the Clinton administration's top priority -- free trade and W.T.O. for China. And the Christian right, which wants rule by God, is stuck with Republicans who want rule by markets.
I say no more politics primavera. Let carrots be with carrots, Walls with Walls and Webs with Webs.
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