Green enthusiasm for cause of a no-fly zone over Libya attracts much angst is it inconsistent with their pacifist traditions? Perhaps we retread the steps of the 1930s. From the mid 1930s Communists under the banner of the Popular Front backed the cause of collective security against the fascist powers and shifted their position on […]
Populism from Bryan to Obama
Barack Obama’s current political woes are slightly overstated, the current Democrat slump has been worsened by a panic reaction to bad economic news, even although the economic evidence viewed overall points to a continuation of the slow recovery.
Jack Lang, Rand Paul and Bob Brown
The rise of the Greens attracted Labor comment, some of it is uniquely self-absorbed we have those who blame their rise on the 1990 election when Labor appealed for second preference votes. Or historian true believer Nick Drenyfuth who identifies a looming battle betweenLabor’s social democracy and Green environmentalism, in fact the Greens are currently […]
Capitalist confidence and electability from Lang to Rudd and Obama
The recent debate about the Resources Super Profits Tax revives an old argument about whether or not capitalists have a veto power over governments due to the alleged linkage between business investment, economic activity and the likelihood of re-election. Critics of capitalism once favoured this argument (and conservatives opposed it) but now with the demise […]
Conservatism and economic crisis
Many on the left hope that economic crises will radicalize voters to the left. Doug Henwood and Paul Krugman disagree. There is evidence from American history in their support, the first American presidential election at which the Democrats were clearly to the left of the Republicans on economic issues was 1896, but at this election […]
The end of British Labour?
Not going well for British Labour as it desperately evokes the memory of past achievements. There are other examples recently of once major political parties collapsing to third (or less) party status: Israeli Labour or the Polish social democrats are examples. Is the problem with British Labour that its institutions and practices reflect a past […]
Barack Obama & Jim Scullin
It is true that the Massachusetts debacle exaggerates the Democrats woes, just as NY-23 obscured them. But Barack Obama might remember the example of the Scullin government. Jim Scullin who led Australian Labor to a landslide victory in 1929 was a nice guy (who shocked senior bureaucrats by asking them to call him ‘Jim’), and […]
Jack Lang, Sarah & Barack
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day Even if Sarah Palin’s resignation speech wasn’t quite as bad as Jon Stewart’s version it was still woeful. An interesting article in Boston Phoenix highlights the self-contained world of movement conservatives and the money to be made […]