The level of ideological extremism in the US, which you see in its Republican party, bleeding ever so casually into its Democratic one, does not occur in a vacuum and, if you work in finance for instance, you will hear things on a regular basis you wouldn't ever hear among polite company in Europe, certainly not from christian democrats.
Certainly there is a vocal minority of extremists, some of whom even have a bullhorn and a public forum; this being said, the extremism has achieved nowhere near the casual acceptance within certain social spheres, the critical mass in the public discourse, as it has in the US. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Angela Merkel is to the left of Barack Obama. (Considering your other posts - and your irritation with the German govt approach to the crisis, see this as a tease. But you know that this is correct... Angela is really to the left of BHO)
My experience with many (surely not all) christian democrats in The Netherlands, especially older ones, was that they could be very lefty on economical issues (surely much to the left of mediterranean social democrats or american liberals). Could one even see "social" christian democracts in .DE and .NL as political alies? (in the economic side)
But be careful with christian democrats in the south of Europe, many of them were associated with Franco, Salazar, Mussolini. And show little regret...
Not to mention the right-wing spectrum in Central and Southeastern Europe... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Give them a generation.
Italy...they've have more than a few such generations to purge themselves of the bile, and yet they give us, over and over again, Burlesquoni. Which is, if you think about it, and after four recessions they've gotten themselves for their trouble in just the past decade or so, pretty fucking amazing, and makes you wonder how they made it into Schengen, the Eurozone and ultimately the EU itself. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
I disagree. Yes, there is some of that. There is also (much more strongly) that many nasty things that existed before came back to the surface from under the lid of that occupation. But, there is also the effect of the societal damage wrought by the IMF-pushed 'reforms' post-1989. And there is also the failure to strongly push a better political culture, both on the part of domestic left-liberal intellectuals, and EU representatives during the long accession process (still on-going say in Croatia). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
It's even true to some extent in France, though to some extent stomped out somewhat effectively in the post-war period unlike in the other Latin countries.
Overton window discussions aside, Merkel is also pretty clearly to the left of Obama, Merkel is too, arguably the Tories in England are as well. Clearly Chirac was as well. Even Sarkozy the opportunist is not going to leave France in some crazed neo-liberal paradise the 30-year developed apparatus of which, in the US, Obama will likely not even make a dent... Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Whom did you mean at the second instance?
Even Sarkozy the opportunist is not going to leave France in some crazed neo-liberal paradise
I wonder though what would have happened had the financial crisis arrrived a few years later. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
