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I mean, when Jospin was PM, there were whiffs of thirdwayism, but overall you had a decent center-left policy, and pretty good results. Ditto with Prodi in Italy and, I think, the Spanish Socialists (although I'll defer to Mig's judgement on Zapatero, overall), just to stick to the larger countries. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
No, that's a simplification. In the strict sense, only Bliar, Brown and Schröder are third-wayists. However, they inspired Prodi (who, lest you forget, failed to curb media monopolies, but executed a lot of 'reforms' in the name of budgetary discipline for the introduction of the Euro -- even if the end result was still much more welfare state than in Britain), Sócrates, Almunia, Zapatero (at least initially when he even praised Bliar, and arguably all the way until he dumped Almunia), and a couple of others (especially in the new EU member states) who never declared themselves Third Wayist, or even claimed they aren't, based on some differences. And the Third Wayists were also the logical continuation, with only minor steps forward, of the 'reform'-ism/defeatism in the face of neoliberalism signified by leaders like Göran Persson, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Wim Kok, Massimo D'Alema, and Felipe González. Jospin was the left-most of the whole bunch of Socialists dominating the EU at the end of the nineties -- and the successors in opposition seem to have made up for the distance. So the problem is really wide, deep and long-running. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Either be Third way, or be labelled an extremist, a dinosaur (or both, or worse, French). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
On the other hand, I haven't mentioned even earlier domestic roots of the Third Wayists themselves.
Bliar & Brown were 'converted' to centrism and promoted by then leader Neil Kinnock; and the next leader John Smith, though more traditionalist, prepared the way towards Bliar's internal power structure changes and the symbolic and infamous changing of party statute Chapter IV by disempowering trade unions within the party. (Also, there was the Fabian Society, but I don't know its history of turning NuLab.)
In Germany, the domestic line was much more straightforward: Schröder is the ideological foster son of former (seventies-early eighties) chancellor Helmut Schmidt, him with the famous line "Those who have visions should see the doctor". *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
New Democrat. But he was called Third Wayist, too, from after the 1994 elections when he governed against/with a Republoscum House majority, but the term was promoted once Bliar came.
BTW, just having checked the Third Way (centrism) Wikipedia article, I find that the earliest manifestation they name is in the middle of the eighties, Labour in Australia. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Imagine a campaign which investigated the tax affairs and lifestyles of top bankers and hedge fund managers.
This would be much more dangerous than scapegoating MPs, but much more effective in directing public anger. There would be the usual counter-attacks about the politics of envy, but with enough repetition and enough evidence of injustice, those would soon start to lose traction.
Remember Bernays - the way to create movements isn't to present rational arguments, it's to demonstrate and dramatise the point you want to make, and then to leave people free to join the dots and apply the needed political and economic pressure themselves.
This is exactly how the right already works. The left has been incredibly bad at developing an immunity to these tactics - never mind a good positive counter-response.
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