Nothing makes a better Rorschach test than a lost election. Following the pounding the Democratic Party took on November 4th, we’ve been treated to explanations about the causes ranging from Democrats failing to distance themselves from Obama, Democrats distancing themselves too much from Obama, rising conservatism, a still anemic recovery and racism, among many other theories. While there may be shades of truth in these explanations, what happened that Tuesday is bigger than Barack Obama and even American politics. Worldwide, center-left political parties are in crisis as they reckon with how to govern in an age of disillusionment with both late capitalism and the traditional means of taming it. The left’s problems are international in nature, and if it is ever to reclaim the political zeitgeist from the right, progressive parties must ignite a vision of a better world, not offer bureaucratic tinkering to manage economic malaise.
In the United Kingdom, Scottish voters almost left the Union altogether because, to quote Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron himself, they were “fed up with the effing Tories.” That said, despite widespread unpopularity of right-wing austerity measures and protests and riots over public sector cuts, the Labour Party is in panic mode and disarray ahead of elections early next year. Ed Miliband, the social democratic party’s leader, is facing internal plots against his leadership and dismal showing in opinion polling. Similarly, French Socialist Party leader François Hollande faces a 13 percent approval rating and barely survived a confidence vote that would have removed him from power. When Democrats and European center-left parties tell voters they are in favor of the spending cuts, tax reductions, slashed regulation and privatizations the right wants but in a smaller degree, it’s no surprise their base voters don’t feel compelled to support them and swing voters gravitate to conservative parties that forthrightly defend their policies.
The breakdown of the relationship between center-left parties and the working classes has also led to a reawakening of dormant far-right monsters. In Greece, this means the ascendance of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to third place in Parliamentary polling, while in France, the right-wing National Front has made attacks on “Islamification” and immigrants central to its campaigns. Though it would be wrong and wildly ahistorical to compare the Tea Party to the National Front, its right-wing populism that casts public employees, food stamp recipients and immigrants as villains has defined the parameters of political debate since the onset of the Great Recession. Because the mainstream left has failed to provide a coherent narrative of the crisis and a real alternative path forward, the confused and overwhelmed white working class is naturally drawn to the cohesive narratives propagated by figures like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. In absence of a positive alternative, the forces of reaction will continue to place the center and left on the defensive.
But is it true, as Margaret Thatcher infamously said, that there is no alternative to the prevailing economic order? Far from it. In Spain, the year-old “Podemos” (translated “We Can”) party has gone from 0.2 percent support in its infancy to a 27.7 percent standing in the latest polls this November by calling for a fundamentally different economic and political system. While conservative Prime Minister Mario Rajoy’s policies have left unemployment above 23 percent and ordinary Spaniards still dislocated after the financial crisis, Podemos wants to institute a universal basic income, renegotiate Spain’s crippling debt to international creditors, shorten the workweek to 35 hours, launch massive investment in public health and education and establish Parliamentary control over monetary policy in a sharp break with current orthodoxy. In the political sphere, the party has open online voting for all members to develop its election platform, small local “circles” that serve as bedrocks against corruption and a broad commitment to making the democratic process more responsive to the people it seeks to govern. By offering a vision of a better future for all citizens, Podemos is on its way to building something very special. In addition to leaders like Evo Morales and Lula De Silva in Latin America, there are indeed alternatives to the hollowing out of incomes and continued financialization of the economy. No one party or politician has a monopoly on the truth, but the Western political establishment certainly lacks it at the moment.
So what does this mean for Democrats? The Democratic Party will never be credible in its claims to improve the standards of living of the vast majority of the country as long as wages continue to stagnate and full employment remains elusive. The kinds of radical remedies political parties like Syriza in Greece and Podemos propose are well out of reach for now, but policy like a universal child credit would be a good place for the government to start raising incomes where the private sector has failed. The sooner Obama’s party buries its commitment to marketization and reclaims its identity in ensuring a decent standard of living for all Americans, the better off we will all be.
Gray Whisnant is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached a g.whisnant@cavalierdaily.com.
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