Quote:

---

There are today profound disagreements about whether the proper location of government should be at the national or international level.

---

Quote:

---

There is also the worldwide demise of center-left politics; the fragmentation of national party systems, often making government formation difficult if not impossible; and the simultaneous increase of inequality and indebtedness across the developed capitalist economies ....

Hillary Clinton proved unable to forge a coalition between Wall Street and Main Street, or between the big and petite bourgeoisie, or between Silicon Valley and industrial workers, or between the forces of finance and Bernie Sanders ....

---

Quote:

---

Death of the Center-Left

Over the past quarter century, the center-left made a historic commitment to internationalism, a movement both promoting and requiring economic and social modernization. Now it is declining into desuetude [disuse]. It is against this background that Trump and Trumpism must be understood.

In the 1990s, the center-left placed its hopes for restoring growth and consolidating public finance on liberalized international markets.

---

Quote:

---

A worldwide effort at industrial and social restructuring followed. International competition put pressure on national economies to become more efficient. Economic losers were punished by ever-lower wages and reduced social security benefits. Economic winners were rewarded by higher profits and lower taxes. Policies to this effect were hard to sell to center-left voters, so they were attributed to the irresistible natural force of globalization. In this way, the center-left hoped to escape responsibility for the pain inflicted on its constituents. The bitter medicine did not work; nor was the center-left granted political immunity. In all countries of the developed capitalist world, the number of losers increased until political entrepreneurs sensed their opportunity and entered the public scene.

---

Quote:

---

The rise of the Trumpists was made possible by the decline of the center-left in the United States, Italy, France, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands, and even Germany, where the losers in the former GDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), were among the earliest supporters of the new right-wing party, the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland). Those aggrieved by the accelerated internationalization of their societies felt abandoned by their national state. Elites in charge of public affairs were judged guilty of having handed national sovereignty to international organizations. These charges were largely true. Global neoliberalism has enfeebled the nation state, and with it, national democracy. Citizens most affected by these events had only their votes to express their displeasure. Trumpism took off, fueled as much in the United States as elsewhere by popular irritation at the vast public celebration of internationalization. Economic and cultural elites entered an international space rich in their rights, at ease both in and out of national states. If democracy is understood as the possibility of establishing social obligations toward those luckless in the marketplace, the global elites had entered into, or created, a world in which there was a great deal of lucklessness and not many obligations.

---

Quote:

---

For those plotting to take advantage of growing discontent, nationalism appeared as an obvious formula both for social reconstruction and political success.

---

Quote:

---

... The Trump presidency is both the outcome and the end of the American version of neo-liberalism. Having commenced crumbling in the era of George W. Bush, the neo-liberal regime managed to regain an appearance of vitality under Barack Obama. With his departure, it was bound to collapse under the weight of its contradictions, and, indeed, absurdities. Clinton’s daring attempt to present herself as advocate of those Americans “working hard and playing by the rules,” while collecting a fortune in speaker’s fees from Goldman Sachs, was destined to fail. So, too, was Clinton’s insistence that it was the historical duty of American voters to elect her as their first female president. Transgendered restrooms infuriated everyone except those seeking access to them, no matter the Obama administration’s attempt to depict bathroom access as a civil right. Deep down, no one cared.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by reaverfan:
There's no center left left. It's almost all reichwing fascists.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by reaverfan:
There's no center left left. It's almost all reichwing fascists.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 6stringJoker:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by reaverfan:
There's no center left left. It's almost all reichwing fascists.

---

You really need to expand your vocabulary.

You use the word fascist in almost every single post and you obviously have no clue what it means.

---