De la mer éternelle: la peste ou le choléra
"This
generation of voters grew up in the financial-crisis era and all they know is
austerity, elites who’ve ruined their future,” said Jean-Philippe Dubrulle, an analyst at pollster Ifop.
“So you have a generation that wants to tear down the system. Macron is seen a
one of the elite, part of the system."
By J.M. Hamilton 5-6-2017
Can you hear them? The tricoteuses are gathering again.
This
Sunday, the E.U. will, likely, breathe a collective sigh
of relief, as will oligarchs around the globe. If the polls are correct, the French establishment’s
candidate, Mr. Macron, will be elected over the populist, Ms. Le Pen. But for many who believe this
signifies the rolling back of the populist tide, they should consider the
following (all of which happened w/in the last year):
Ø A
relatively unknown socialist Senator from Vermont almost knocked off the Democratic
nominee, during the U.S. primaries;
Ø The
U.S. establishment’s choice for POTUS, Madame Hillary Clinton, was defeated by
a billionaire political neophyte, who ran as a populist (subsequent
actions/behavior notwithstanding);
Ø Mr.
Trump’s platform - and the race he ran - attacked the Republican Party as
failed, and as tools of the establishment;
Ø Austrians
rejected establishment choices, and elected their very first Green Candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen (Per Bloomberg: “It’s the first time in 70
years the country has elected
a presidential candidate outside the Social Democratic or Austrian People’s
Party, after both the established parties were eliminated in earlier rounds of
voting.");
Ø England held a
referendum on the E.U., and the majority voted in favor of leaving the E.U.
(aka Brexit);
Ø In France, two
Sundays ago, the Fifth Republic – in place since 1958 – was overthrown, along
with the two mainstream French political parties. A first in 58 years;
Ø In France’s first
round of voting, the far-right candidate, Ms. Le Pen, and her far-left
challenger, Mr. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, together, collected 40% of the
French vote;
Ø In
South Korea, President Park
Geun-hye was forced out of office, over corruption charges; and the heir to the
Samsung fortune, the most powerful corporation in South Korea, was arrested on
corruption charges in the same scandal;
Ø In Brazil, a
democratically elected leftist, President Dilma Rousseff, was overthrown and replaced in a coup
orchestrated by highly corrupt oligarchs;
Ø And while you won’t
read much about it w/in the U.S. MSM, Venezuela is in the midst of a populist revolt
against a highly corrupt left-wing regime.
In
short, if anything, the populist revolt has gone global and is gathering steam. What is driving this political
evolution or devolution? The parallels between the American and
French elections, in particular, offer some clues.
Ø After
the 2008 financial collapse, American & French voters rejected right of
center political parties and installed left of center – mainstream – political
parties (aka Democrats and in France, Socialist… as we will soon see, the
“Socialist Party” in France is a misnomer, in its present incarnation.)
Ø The left
of center presidents, Obama & Hollande, whose parties historically had
backed the middle and working classes, adopted the oligarchy’s agenda. That is to say: neoliberalism;
globalization; free trade uber alles; the financialization
of the economy; and open borders (w/ a highly debilitating impact and an
entirely predictable result upon American & French citizens).
Ø During
the last several decades, the working class in both countries have seen wages
stagnate, growing wage & wealth inequality, and working class jobs exported
offshore. They’ve also seen
the oligarchy co-opt and own both mainstream political parties. In short, the wealthy have grown wealthier
and the poor… well, you know the story.
Ø The
American and French electorate --- having shifted center-right, then
center-left, and w/ both establishment parties having failed them --- have
turned on both mainstream political parties. Predictably, both
electorates have looked outside the establishment parties for assistance.
Ø Youth
unemployment in both
countries, since the financial crash, remains exceptionally high, and over the
last eight years, well into the double-digits.
Ø Citizens
in America and France have come to the conclusion that the establishment
political parties are highly venal. And
money and the oligarchs have contaminated and corrupted the establishment
parties, if not government, itself.
Ø Interestingly, much
of the campaign rhetoric, from the far-left and far-right candidates
(Trump/Sanders and Le Pen/ Mélenchon), is often identical, attacking: Wall Street, big banks, a
purchased & crony government and politicians, central bankers, free trade
agreements, and globalization.
Ø The
key difference between the far-right and the far-left is the right’s adoption
of the politics of division & discontent, pitting one strata of society
against another (often immigrants and refugees).
Who
benefits most from the right-wing’s politics of discord and division? Well, that would be the oligarchy, of
course. Any
day that passes where the oligarchy is not blamed for the current economic
crisis, and global political unrest, is a sunny day for our true masters, the
Lords of Finance and the billionaire class.
So
what are the takeaways from all this?
One:
Increasingly, the traditional left/right political demarcation is becoming
irrelevant. In France and
America, it is notable that the left of center political parties, Socialist and
Dems, are now perceived to be in bed with banking and multinational interests. In fact, two Sundays ago, the
center-left Socialist party had the worst showing in round one of the French
presidential elections (finishing a very distant fifth, behind the communist
candidate); and in in America, the Democrats lost the White House, Senate, and
the House.
It
is widely perceived, correctly, that the center-left has rejected the middle
class and ordinary Americans & French citizens, and is far more comfortable
representing the elites, banking, and shadow banking (e.g. See POTUS Obama
bailing out Wall Street banks, and recently accepting a $400,000
speaking engagement with a Wall Street firm).
Two: There is an actual abyss between liberal social policy and Ayn Randian neoliberalism or hyper-
predatory capitalism. Liberals
seek to turn capitalism for the betterment of all mankind (often attempting to
contain capitalism’s, ahem, creative destruction/worst impulses, via
redistribution & regulation), while neoliberalism seeks to reward the
elite, exclusively (that is to say, neoliberalism embraces the savage jungle
and binary outcomes).
The
two ethos, liberalism & neoliberalism, are mutually exclusive and
diametrically opposed; and yet, in both France and America, the left of center
political parties have attempted to introduce liberalism and neoliberalism, as
interconnected. In fact, if
anything, the center-left in both countries has rejected liberalism and
redistributive policies (at a time of tremendous suffering among the vox
populi, due to globalization, automation, the financialization of the economy, and AI), in favor of
the plutocracy’s neoliberalism.
And
Three: We likely, haven’t seen anything yet. Who knows what the eternal
sea (aka the global political arena)
is capable of issuing forth? Wars? Famine? …. anything to distract the
global population from the oligarchy’s machinations.
One
thing is certain, as long as the oligarchy and political elites act with
extraordinary arrogance, the opportunity for populism, extremism, and outsider
candidates only grows.
Eventually,
the proletariat will figure out that their enemy is not each other, but the ruling
oligarchy. The fact
that some voters can shift from Sanders to a Trump, or from a Mélenchon to a Le
Pen (or vice versa), further demonstrates that nearly all politics is economic…
and the traditional left/center
axis is rapidly dissolving into a 1% versus 99% dichotomy. (This is not
to say that social policy divisions will not remain for the foreseeable future.)
In
this country, when POTUS Trump’s laissez
faire policies fail again, the vacuum left by right-wing populism (as
practiced by Trump: the politics of oligarchy), and Clintonian
Dems, will likely be filled by socialism.
Very
much as the ruling oligarchy supports the redistribution of government and
private sector wealth to themselves, America’s & France’s educated youth fully support
redistribution of wealth to themselves and the greater society as a whole.
Accounting
entries, such as trillions in national debt, and the banksters who hold that debt, be damned.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2017
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