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The Death of the Leftist Project (at Least for Now)
PJ Media ^ | November 25, 2016 | Michael Walsh

Posted on 11/25/2016 4:25:21 PM PST by Kaslin

Goodbye, so long, auf wiedersehen, farewell --

When Donald Trump shocked the world with an upset victory in the U.S. presidential election this month, much of Europe was aghast. But in at least one critical sense, the result couldn’t have been more European: Across the continent, parties of the center-left that have dominated politics for decades — and that have given Europe its reputation for generous social welfare systems — now find themselves beaten, divided and directionless. Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are just the latest members of a beleaguered club.

In Germany and Britain, once-mighty center-left parties have been badly diminished, locked out of their nations’ top jobs for the foreseeable future. In Spain and Greece, they have been usurped by newer, more radical alternatives. And in France and Italy, they’re still governing — but their days in power may be numbered. The rout of the center-left has even extended deep into Scandinavia, perhaps the world’s premier bastion of social democracy.

Overall, the total vote share for the continent’s traditional center-left parties is now at its lowest level since at least World War II. Like the Democrats, these parties have been marginalized, with little influence over policy as the right prepares to place its stamp on the Western world in a way that could endure for decades.

“If the left and the center-left don’t get their act together, then we’re looking at a period of very unstable right-wing hegemony,” said Alex Callinicos, a European studies professor at King’s College London.

Good. The cultural Marxist threat I outlined in my recent bestseller, The Devil's Pleasure Palace -- on sale at the link this Black Friday weekend! -- has at last begun to recede; now the challenge is to restore Western civilization's cultural confidence again in the primacy if its message: political freedom, artistic creation, technological advancement, radiant spirituality for all who welcome it. The culture of death and decay -- quintessentially satanic -- is being roundly rejected around the precincts of goodness.

As recently as a decade ago, the picture was very different. Britain’s Tony Blair was at the vanguard of a generation of European center-left leaders who had emulated Bill Clinton’s pragmatic Third Way politics and seemed poised to ride their marriage of social democracy with market liberalization to an unlimited future of electoral success.

But the Great Recession — and the bumpy, deeply unequal recovery that followed — fundamentally changed that.

“With the economic crisis, and the negative effects of globalization, the socialists couldn’t convince the populations in their respective countries that the future lies in a liberal Europe,” said Gérard Grunberg, a historian of socialism at Sciences Po in Paris. “This is the end of the European utopia.”

Even better. The "European utopia" was always a daemonic fantasy, born of bloodshed, guilt, mass murder, and displacement, and protected by the American nuclear umbrella.

That “utopia” emerged in the aftermath of 1945, when politicians across war-torn Europe banded together to build a new continent that would never repeat the grave mistakes of the recent past. This was the genesis of the European Union: an economic union that was meant to become, at least in theory,committed to the common cause of social justice, largely a leftist ideal.

The real "leftist ideal" was the European superstate known as the EU, a more benign form of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that collapsed in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although the Washington Post quoted here doesn't see it that way, everything since then has been a gradual dissolution, as the Americans -- and now, the somnambulist Europeans -- have awakened to find a void at the center of their existence.

Let's just hope it's not too late.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donaldtrump; trumpagenda; trumptransition

1 posted on 11/25/2016 4:25:21 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

#bleaklivesmatter


2 posted on 11/25/2016 4:49:52 PM PST by PGalt (CONGRATULATIONS Donald J. Trump)
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To: Kaslin
The real "leftist ideal" was the European super state known as the EU, a more benign form of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that collapsed in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

There is nothing benign about a Super Government of unelected and unaccountable socialist ‘Representatives’. Nor could there be.

Socialist always believe that they know better than the common man what is to be done with the wealth of the individual. Separate the politician from the need to gain reelection and the brakes come off and government is the proverbial runaway train.

Socialism at its core is legalized theft and so must trend toward evil. The elected to power makes a pact with the voter to steal from the productive in order to give to the unproductive. It is a pact with the devil.

But as with any addict more is never enough and the voter addicted to wealth redistribution is always willing to vote for a politician that offers more ill-gotten goodies. So the politician must always be looking to offer more of someone else’s money.

So the socialist utopia is destined to grow to the point where the economy collapses under the weight of many who live off the production of the few.

The EU must come to such an end if it survives the desires of the member states to escape its clutches.

3 posted on 11/25/2016 5:10:30 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Kaslin

Maybe I am simple minded but the word that comes to
my mind is introspection, a word that can’t be found
in the liberal dictionary. Just think, liberal political
thought and propaganda overwhelmingly dominates all of
the media and academia yet they can’t convince enough
voters that their way is the only way to go. Why is
that?

Liberals often claim that the GOP has moved to the right.
The reality is that while the GOPe has acquiesced to
many left wing goals and have actually been helpful,
true conservatives have continued to resist almost all
whacky liberal ideas and plans. By definition their
job is to come up with these whacky ideas and the
job of conservatives is to slow or stop them.

This recent election has again demonstrated that
although the liberals control the media they still
cannot control voters. I would submit that if the media
were truly balanced and fair the liberal vote would
be miniscule almost throughout the land. The media
and leadership of the left lack the introspection ability
to comprehend that the people do not want to go as far
to the left as the left wants to take them.
If they did and if they could slow their
roll they just might become dangerous again.


4 posted on 11/25/2016 5:40:54 PM PST by Sivad (NorCal red turf.)
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To: Kaslin
I have not seen any of the institutions of the left recede or fall back. A temper tantrum surely but only for intimidation effect and they got away with it. The left can do anything. If you defend yourself against them. You will be put in jail. Point made. Any belief to the contrary is fantasy. I hope we send the left packing but the last time we had a chance to do so, the Gang of Fourteen sabotaged the effort. You cannot believe the depth of the betrayal. The leader of the gang just got re-elected from Az. Hoping but not holding my breath.
5 posted on 11/25/2016 7:47:03 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Kaslin

Bkmk


6 posted on 11/25/2016 11:56:31 PM PST by sauropod (Beware the fury of a patient man. I've lost my patience!)
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