I do not want to speak to whether the US is "behind" or "ahead" of the curve - I think it is different, but that does not imply a position in a linear development, which I do not think exists. But the fact of the matter is that the Left as a political force does not exist anymore on any side of the pond. It survived mainly as a cultural identity in the US - perhaps because the Left did not have any meaningful political power here. Therefore it retained the allure of an exotic but forbidden fruit.
In Europe, however, the Left was a victim of its own political success. Having succeeded in introducing to the mainstream most of its social and political agenda it became indistinguishable from other mainstream parties in terms of policy. It maintained mainly its cultural identity which was effectively undermined by the demise of the Eastern European communist system. The Left's attempts to reinvent itself atfer that blow was embracing neo-liberalism.
This resulted in a peculiar paradox of the EU politics: iit is the righ-leaning (pro-business or nationalist) parties that are today the main champion of welfare policies that in th epast were implemented by the Left. And since it is the welfare policies that matter for the great majority of the population, it is no surprise that the Left is losing it spopularity at a fast rate.
PS. Google spell checker really sucks. I have a slight motor disorder that makes it difficult for me to type (I cannot press keys accurately) and I heavily depend on spell checking as I type to correct typos. The problem is that Google spell checker does not work most of the time (it captures only a fraction of missspelled words) and I really hate doing a spell check after composing the text. Does any one know how to change that in Gmail?
Wojtek
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 1:29 PM, James Heartfield < Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Wojtek writes
>
> 'The Euro left has been long dead - as political identity that is. Most of
> what used to be the Left's agenda has long been accepted by mainstream and
> right leaning parties (or I should say pro-business parties, as the
> Left-Right distinction has lost most of its meaning.)'
>
> Which is definitely the case. I remember a good, if cynical article (Martin
> Seymour Lipset?) about the disappearing problem of 'American
> Exceptionalism'. Responding to political scientists who asked the question
> why there was no socialism in the US, considered the exceptional condition,
> the author looked at the evidence of the decline of the left, and argued
> that it was not that America was exceptional, with the implication that
> sometime, the US would catch up with the rest, but that it was ahead of the
> trend. Like I say, a miserable conclusion, but an accurate account of the
> now (if not the to come).
>
> Still, Andy Williams tells me that the US is under Marxist-inspired
> leadership, so there's hope yet.
>
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