Tag: germany

Right Germany

Rick provides nice followup to this bit of Lemkin wisdom in a New Yorker piece:

…it’s not as if German conservatives are a bunch of crazy far-right nihilists. This is not the Republicans we’re talking about. Both the CDU and the FDP recognize the urgency of global warming. Neither of them has a problem with gays. (The FDP’s leader, soon to be foreign minister, is the country’s other openly gay political bigwig.) Nor do they have a problem with allowing a woman to end a pregnancy if she feels she must, or with telling kids to use condoms if they can’t resist having sex, or with the theory of evolution, or with gun control—or, for that matter, with “socialism.” The vast majority of Germans, including most CDU voters and probably even most FDP voters, have no desire to junk the basic architecture of German social welfare, which, of course, is mainly the creation of the SPD. That’s another reason the SPD found it so difficult to get fired up and ready to go.

Thanks, Rick!

Center-right (in Germany)

The MSM is lately trumpeting the German elections having created a “center-right” governing coalition as though that construction has meaning, or at least the same meaning in the United States as it does in Germany. And, of course, it plays to their MSM-preferred storyline that the “split-the-difference” solution is not just better politics, it’s better policy. Which is utter nonsense. But, for context, let’s review just what were the two key issues of the recent German elections:

-modest middle-income tax relief

-work toward a strategy for the eventual withdrawal of the more than 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan

The first is and was a key Obama plank. Everyone, and I mean everyone, on the “right” in Congress voted against that. Some Democrats on the right did too. The second wouldn’t even be on the table of a nationwide election in this country unless you’re Dennis Kucinich, or some other denizen of the “far” left. The fact is, our political spectrum has been radically re-formulated; this began with Reagan and accelerated mightily under W. Bush. Today’s bipartisanship, such as it exists at all, is between left- and right-of center Democrats. This seemingly obvious fact is, as yet, utterly unknown to the MSM. I’ve seriously never, ever seen mention of it outside the progressive blogosphere. It just isn’t said. Keep walking.

Anyway, back in Germany, it would seem the main point of contention comes down to:

the Conservatives disagree with the Liberals on some policy issues, for instance on how much regulation the finance sector needs or on the right balance between strengthening security measures and protecting civil rights.

That (at least) sounds vaguely familiar. Again, though, in the US, the GOP is categorically against any new financial regulation. Hell, Palin is going around saying there’s still too much financial regulation. But, I think we can rest assured: in Germany, “conservatives” are categorically for universal healthcare, support relatively high tax rates (compared to the United States; these very “center-right” Germans support raising corporate taxes, for instance), and are calling for a less aggressive global military stance (again, relative to the US).  Does anyone out there believe that any of those policy positions would fly in the modern GOP? At any level?

But, by all means, let’s simplify matters and just pretend that the German-GOP had big gains in the most recent German election cycle. As always, bad news for the Democrat.