By blindly following the United States in proxy wars, EU leaders have triggered a backlash that threatens to cause their own downfall.
Western governments are in a crisis of their own making
By blindly following the United States in proxy wars, EU leaders have triggered a backlash that threatens to cause their own downfall.
By: Graham Hryce an Australian journalist and former media lawyer, whose work has been published in The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the Sunday Mail, the Spectator, and Quadrant. I have translated his entire article for you despite the fact that he is extremely anti-Trump.
As the proxy wars of the American empire in Palestine and Ukraine escalate, the acute state of political instability that characterizes most Western democracies has recently – not surprisingly – intensified.
The United States is currently in the midst of a desperate election campaign – voters will cast their ballots on November 6.
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris recently reaffirmed their commitment to the Israeli Netanyahu government – as it continues to kill civilians with impunity in the Gaza Strip and launch a military invasion in the West Bank – and both candidates continue to – somewhat less enthusiastically – support the Zelensky regime in Ukraine.
Behind the obligatory ideological zeal and celebrity glitter, it is Donald Trump who has defined the nature and parameters of the presidential election.
(According to the article’s author) Trump is a convicted criminal who continues to peddle the discredited “stolen and rigged election” narrative. On January 6, 2021, Trump urged his supporters to storm the Capitol building to prevent his own vice president (Mike Pence) from certifying the 2020 election results – as the constitution obliges him to do. The rioters shouted “Kill Pence,” while Pence and his family were safely escorted by security guards.
Trump also tried to pressure election officials to decide in some states that he had won the election – a case that is currently still pending against him.
A decade ago, such behavior from a politician would have disqualified them from being a presidential candidate, and no major party would have supported them.
This week, Trump blatantly defended his behavior in an interview – while campaigning on a platform based on transparent lies and crude insults, and promising revenge and retaliation against his political opponents if he becomes president.
It is a sign of the degradation of American politics that Harris rarely refers to Trump’s transgressions against liberal democracy – because it seems that most American voters no longer care about them. It seems much more effective for Harris to ridicule Trump by calling him “weird and creepy.”
Although Harris has recently surged in opinion polls, the election outcome remains uncertain – as more than 70 million of the 150 million Americans who bother to vote are rusty Trump supporters.
❗ Regardless of who wins in November, the toxic political division that has crippled America over the past decade is likely to intensify.
Just like in 2020, Trump and his more fanatical supporters will not accept defeat, and they have already predicted a “bloodbath” if he loses.
Harris’s claim that she can “unite America” is the most self-aggrandizing kind of magical thinking.
So much for the future of liberal democracy and political stability in the declining American empire. ❌
In the United Kingdom, the newly elected Labour Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has now backtracked on his promise to usher in a new era of prosperity for Britain.
Just weeks after his election victory, Starmer informed the British public that
they will have to face at least 10 years of austerity before the country can emerge from its current state of economic decline and internal division
– a fact that clearly escaped Starmer’s attention until after his election victory.
Despite recent anti-immigrant riots in several British cities, Starmer seems to believe that British voters will passively accept a decade of austerity measures and tax hikes, and that the majority of Labour MPs will defend him against their anger.
✔ Like Harris and Trump, Starmer unwaveringly supports America’s proxy wars in Palestine and Ukraine – despite strong opposition to both from many Britons.⛔
Recent opinion polls show that Labour’s popularity has already declined, and there is growing unrest in the large ranks of backbench Labour MPs – as it becomes clear that Starmer is unable to deliver on Labour’s major election promises. His decision this week to cut winter energy payments for pensioners threatens to spark a revolt among backbenchers.
The Conservative Party remains hopelessly divided and has not yet selected a new leader – the leadership candidates are a collection of not very impressive political nonsense.
Under these circumstances, it can be expected that the British will become increasingly disillusioned with the Starmer government.
Whether this dissatisfaction will manifest in violent protests and/or an increase in support for Nigel Farage’s populist Reform Party remains to be seen.
In Germany, political instability has gone much further than in the United Kingdom – largely due to the severe economic impact of the Ukrainian conflict.
The (Social Democrats, Free Democrats, and Greens) Scholz government’s popularity has recently plummeted – and it seems certain that he will be ousted from office in next year’s elections, if not earlier.❌
🔴 Despite this, Scholz remains firmly committed to America’s proxy wars – despite massive resistance within Germany, which has politically manifested in the rise of successful populist parties on both the right and left.
In regional elections this week in the former East Germany, Thuringia and Saxony, a right-wing populist party (AfD) and a newly formed left-wing populist party (BSW) have emerged. Both parties staunchly oppose Germany’s participation in the Ukraine conflict and mass immigration.
AfD garnered around 30% of the votes in these regional elections, while BSW received around 15%. The votes of the Social Democrats, Free Democrats, and Greens completely collapsed – these parties achieved results around 5% or even lower. ❌⏬
The mainstream parties have stated that they will not enter into a government coalition with AfD – which they reject as a neo-Nazi organization -, and this rejection, given the unpopularity of Scholz’s unstable coalition, could lead to further political instability.
It is not clear whether AfD and BSW perform equally well in opinion polls nationally and in Western Germany, but it is clear that these parties now represent significant political forces in Germany.
Scholz described the election results this week as “alarming” and condemned what he sees as “far-right extremists” for “weakening the economy, dividing society, and tarnishing Germany’s reputation” – all of these criticisms can of course be rightfully directed at Scholz’s own unfit government coalition.
Meanwhile, France has been plagued by political paralysis for months as President Emmanuel Macron stubbornly refuses to appoint a prime minister after recent national elections.
In the foolishly called snap election by Macron, votes for centrist parties collapsed, with a new radical left-wing bloc emerging and the right-wing National Rally enjoying significant and ongoing electoral support.
Macron’s party, the new left-wing coalition, and the National Rally each garnered around 30% of the votes – creating a divisive political deadlock in the National Assembly.
Macron has been unwilling to appoint a prime minister from the left, and over the weekend he appointed Michel Barnier, an elderly conservative politician.
🔴 Political instability in France is now certain to escalate as the left-wing coalition bloc refuses to accept Barnier as a legitimate prime minister – one of the bloc’s leaders has already accused Macron of “stealing the election” with his appointment.
It is also uncertain whether Barnier would be able to form a viable government or survive a vote of no confidence.
In Australia, the Labor Party government led by Anthony Albanese, with a thin majority of two seats, has become increasingly unpopular over the past two years and faces early elections in 2025.
Albanese’s unwavering support for the Netanyahu government has caused deep divisions within the Labor Party and forced Muslim voters – who make up significant minorities in many key Labour-held areas – to leave the party.
Australia has not yet seen a significant populist party emerge, and it is likely to have a hung parliament in next year’s elections – the most likely outcome being a minority Labor government. This can only result in continued political instability.
🔶 The collapse of traditional centrist parties and the rise of right- and left-wing populist parties are making Western politics increasingly unstable and dysfunctional.
🔶 This political reshuffling is based on the emergence of a globalized economy built on renewable energy and technological changes stemming from the internet.
🔶 This economic revolution has resulted in the economic and social marginalization of segments of the traditional working class and older middle classes – leading to intense ideological conflicts in the West.
🔶 These developments have been driven and directed by the global elite, which – unlike the more progressive elements of the elite they displaced – are unwilling to share their extraordinary wealth and integrate the groups they have marginalized into the new society they have created.
🔶 These global elites are unwilling to recognize as legitimate any dissatisfaction or resistance – whether ideological or political – against the new world order they have created and profited from.
🔶 These global elites uncritically and fervently support the misguided proxy wars of the American empire
– just like the politicians who are desperately following their orders, including Harris, Starmer, Scholz, Macron, and Albanese.
🔶 The negative effects of the policies and neototalitarian ideologies of the global elite have generated strong populist political backlash, leading to ongoing political instability.
🔶 Western political leaders like Liz Truss are simply unable to address the acute political and economic problems generated by the policies of the global elite.
🔶 Western politics has become a practice in continuous crisis management.
While populist political leaders do not have viable solutions to the fundamental problems facing Western liberal democracies, by firmly opposing America’s proxy wars, some European populist politicians are paradoxically trying to introduce some much-needed rationality into Western politics.
Whether this attempt will be successful is still a very open question.
💘Love
💘Love
😡Angry
😡Angry
