AMERICA POLITICAL CENTER CRUMBLES
AS SANDERS-TRUMP PUSH OUTWARDS
By John Wight. Feb
20/16. He is a writer of Hiffington Post, Counterpunch &
others.
[ El centro jamás
desaparece, cambia de posicion y de color si, pero siempre existe y existirá como existe el punto
ZERO en todos los esquemas cartesianos. Y cuando cambia de color el “clash” de
viejos mitos y dogmas del pasado es lo más natural e irreversible . Y ese
cambio no es nada más que un tránsito a colores ya existentes en el arco-iris de
una mundialización que no acepta primacias ni uni-polarismos colapsantes y en descomposición.
En el ajedrez como en la política siempre ganara quien controle el punto medio
.. el problema es saber dónde está el punto medio?.. cual es ahora el punto
medio? .. Todos sabemos que si existe .. que si no existiera habria que crearlo .. pero si existe .. como existe las matemáticas y otras ciencias .. y la política lo es. Hugo Adan ]
..
EXTRACTS
The surge in support
for Bernie Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination for the upcoming US
presidential election, in conjunction with Donald Trump’s success on the
Republican side, reveals that the center ground in US politics is collapsing.
Currently, in the
United States, received truths are being demolished one after the other as more
and more people reject the thin gruel offered to them by establishment
politicians and candidates. The global economic recession that swept the
country in 2008 not only decimated incomes, livelihoods, and savings, it also
decimated faith in the status quo. It sparked a willingness to regard hitherto
radical ideas and the politicians who advocate them in a fresh light.
The result has been a
resurgence of left and right wing ideas – embodied by Bernie Sanders and Donald
Trump respectively - at the expense of those who occupy the center ground; for
decades the only ground politicians would dare occupy if serious about winning
elections.
The march from the
center to the left and right of the political spectrum was undertaken at the
expense of consensus and at the expense of the clash of ideas. The net result
has been political manifestoes and programs for government that have differed
only in the name of the party or candidate printed on the cover. On everything
from the economy to foreign policy mainstream parties and candidates have for
decades stood united, prioritizing the interests of the banks, major corporations
and vested interests at home, and US hegemony abroad.
In the Republican
primaries, Donald Trump has confounded political pundits and the entire
Washington establishment with a campaign in which the billionaire has ripped up
political correctness by the roots and thrown it in the garbage can. With each
outrageous campaign pledge – e.g. building a giant wall along the border with
Mexico to deal with illegal immigration, implementing a moratorium on Muslims
entering the country – rather than cause his campaign to lose support, his
numbers have increased. It is evidence that when it comes to measuring the
temper of the public, it is Trump rather than any of the other more established
candidates in the field with his finger on the pulse of conservative America.
On foreign policy,
while he is no pacifist, Trump has spoken of his admiration for Russia’s
President Putin and his intention of forging a better relationship with Russia
if he ends up in the White House. It marks a radical departure from the current
administration’s stance, which - rather than a strong potential partner in the
struggle against terrorism in the interests of peace and stability - considers
Putin and Moscow a threat.
When it comes to the
Democratic race for the nomination, Bernie Sanders is giving Hillary Clinton a
run for her money that none could ever have predicted when he first announced
his intention to run. Not only has the senator from Vermont broken the taboo
when it comes to advocating socialist ideas in a country in which the mention
of the very word was at one time enough to spark hysteria, at 74 years old he
has also delivered a rebuke to the idea that youth is all.
In his debates with
Clinton, Sanders has repeatedly raised the former Secretary of State’s close
relationship to Wall Street, from where she’s received most of her campaign
funds, as he lambasts the role of big money in funding political campaigns. He
understands that currently the United States has the best democracy that money
can buy: a corrupt political system that refutes the country’s claim to being
the land of the free.
Moreover, in pledging
to reverse a status quo of wealth distribution from the bottom to the top,
responsible for entrenching gross inequality and social and economic injustice,
Sanders is educating the American people on the importance of class rather than
race, religion, gender or sexual orientation when it comes to understanding the
state of the nation. The only divide that matters in society, he has spares no
opportunity in pronouncing, is the one that exists between the super-rich and
everybody else.
The way things are
heading in both the Republican and Democratic Party primaries sets up the
tantalizing possibility of a contest for the White House between a flamboyant
and outspoken billionaire on one side, and a hitherto anonymous senator and
socialist on the other. If so, it would see not only a clash of policy but also
a clash of ideology, producing a real choice when it comes to America’s future
for the first time in over a generation.
It is not only in the
US where the center ground has collapsed. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn romped home
in last year’s Labour leadership contest against all odds and predictions,
attracting thousands of new members to the party in the process.
To illustrate just
how much of a radical departure Corbyn’s leadership of Labour is, you only have
to consider that the same party that was once led by Tony Blair, who slavishly
supported the war in Iraq, is now being led by a man who believes that the war
was illegal and that Blair should be tried for war crimes. He also has the
radical idea that millionaires should pay their fair share of tax.
Taken together with
the rise of the right in France with Marine Le Pen’s National Front enjoying
success in recent elections, the electoral success of Syriza in Greece, along
with the rise of socialist and left wing parties in Spain and Portugal, we are
witnessing the collapse of the center ground as the era of consensual politics
draws to a close.
In its place the
clash of ideas is resounding as never before.
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The statements, views
and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of RT.
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