• Ms. Merkel Identifies U.S. as global rival that, along with PRC and Russia...
    38 replies, posted
I suppose the close alliance between the US and Europe existed because of common enemies from the beginning. Germany, after Japan gave the US some persuasion by sinking most of the Pacific Fleet, then subsequently (and immediately after Germany) the Soviets became a threat. Now that the direct, ideological threats from military enemies appears to have as least died down, Europe can begin to take a position as a totally non-subservient world power with autonomy. More than that, Trump has forced that to occur and the European Governments need to respond with strength and reason, contrasting with Trump's lack of the latter. Like it or not, Europe and, for the same reason, Canada may need to stand alone as powers which pose a threat to any enemies all alone. The unusual thing geopolitically is that the US made a very quick transition from an ally which we were totally dependent on, to an adversary which is likely to start conflicts that we're affected by, but had no choice about. Case in point, three European nations withdrew military cooperation with the US this week in fear that their units would be asked by their US-led Joint Command to accompany them into an illegal war with Iran. I think that request was not just out of order, it was adversarial, as it directly contradicted the current European view that the nuclear agreement should stand. Armed forces from nations with contradictory policies on the same foreign policy issue cannot operate as Joint Forces within that region. Picture it - a Task Force which was 90% US but had two Coalition support ships accompanying, say, a CBG, is ordered by the US to conduct a first strike on Iran. The two Coalition ships are compelled by their Governments to abandon the Task Force, leaving perhaps a destroyer or frigate and an auxiliary out in open waters in a warzone. It's a total nightmare. Unless Trump is removed from power I can see the powers that recently made up ISAF giving the US a massive boot. They've been left with no choice.
Forgive me if I'm wrong but how many of those parties hold any kind of power though? Looking at the parties list a bunch of them have only one senator. It seems like the only parties that hold any real power are the Greens, Labour and the Coaltion.
nah there are marked differences, especially in the 'being hostile to people that won't bow down' front, since republicans tend to view compromise more negatively than democrats
Good. We cannot rely on US as much as we did before, it might be a huge negative impact for the continent as a whole.
Oh, so the "Satan Bakes Pancakes" band is literally about a guy named Satan who bakes pancakes. Names are names, lmao.
Working class voters are abandoning Labour because they're running out of things to relate to, and because the current Labour Party is one of the worst oppositions we've had in decades. We're too quick to say that the rise of parties like BXP comes from tactics like manipulation & populism, maybe because we're afraid to shove some blame and responsibility on the people that we support. I guarantee Labour could draw back at least a sizeable portion of the working class vote if their leader wasn't so inept and they weren't doing such a terrible job at the moment. Nigel Farage is a faux-charismatic speaker that presents himself as 'someone who says it as it is', but not even that is enough to cause the current British political climate. The Tories are collapsing, and the Labour Party has dedicated itself to sitting on the fence and barely doing its job. Nigel Farage is not a spontaneous figure, but instead he and his Brexit Party are the explosion of a time bomb that has subtly ticked away for months. Shovelling blame on someone else, including voters, serves only to fit a guilt-free narrative; Labour has pushed people to this. My parents know people who have voted Labour for at least 45 years, and now they're switching to parties like BXP because Corbyn's reign of the party is dragging it into an abyss (and that's not even related to New Labour v 'Socialist' Labour). If we are to have a general election and Labour wins, don't for one second think it's because Labour is suddenly popular; being one of the least hated is not the same as being one of the most liked.
Social-democratic parties have also suffered with the rise of populism, and part of Trump's success is built on historic blue collar exit from the Democratic party and the class' fall into cultural division after the 60s. From what I've seen the response to this has been obfuscation and denialism, with academics and journalists working to fit this reaction into a preconceived struggle against wealth and culture that this section of working and middle class people have been lumped in with. Many of the reasons given for this strongly relate to older left theories about labor aristocracy and the inherent conservatism of unions. I have also anecdotally seen significant friction in the far left, largely over the realignment happening now and how to view liberalism in light of populist challenges. This, fittingly, tends to see ideological divisions devolve into cultural ones as explanations for the differences. I think the left is in crisis as much as liberalism. I've long noticed frustration, only briefly interrupted by OWS, towards the failure to capitalize on fatigue with issues related to globalization or war, move away from a middle class image, and revive aspects of the Old Left. I think this conditions a lot of the response and its default to antifa, something that historically was the last refuge of relevance towards the end of the 20th century as the left was stripped of powerful mass organizations and put in the shadow of liberal-dominated civil society.
i look forward to the future where far-right shit heels will cling to our flag as a symbol hate /s
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