Has the left hit rock bottom in terms of international political power?

[maga2020]

Let's see who is currently leading most of the top 25 countries in GDP (at least the democratic ones):

USA - the right by the largest margin since the 20s.
Japan - the right
Germany - the "right" (at least in their political spectrum, Merkel just happens to be an open borders leftist who opposes gay marriage).
UK - the right (and despite all the talk about Corbyn's moral "victory", now both the Great Britain right and the Northern Ireland right are in government, not to mention the execution of UKIP's main goal: Brexit).
France - the center (actually the globalist left but Macron is right wing on economics and the PS was wiped out).
India - the right
Italy - the left in one of the most unstable governments in Europe, lost constitutional referendum leading to Renzi's resignation, prime minister Grillo increasingly possible.
Brazil - the right (the left was impeached, continuing the trend of leftist wipeout in Latin America).
Canada - the globalist left
South Korea - the left (the right got impeached).
Russia - the right for nearly 2 decades (and more to come!).
Australia - the right
Spain - the right
Mexico - PRI crooks (one of the few realistic shots at power the left has before 2020, but if AMLO can't win painting Trump as the devil, he will never ever win).
Indonesia - the left
The Netherlands - the right
Switzerland - the right
Argentina - the right
Sweden - the left (falling apart)
Poland - the right
Belgium - the right

Going into the top 50, the right adds Norway, Israel, Denmark, Ireland, Finland and Peru.

While the left adds Austria (about to lose it), South Africa, Venezuela (in chaos), Chile (about to lose it), Portugal and Greece (the most broke country in Europe).

It seems like, all over the world, voters have rejected the left and their failed governments and the right controls a supermajority of the democratic world, has the left hit political rock bottom? In most of the developed world, immigration has made them increasingly unelectable, as America and Europe claim for its total shutdown, especially from muslim countries, leftists are also soft on radical islamic terrorism, the biggest threat to the West's survival. In Latin America, they have lost nearly all countries and might as well become unelectable because voters will not elect supporters of the disastrous dictatorship in Venezuela.

Should the left become anti-immigration to survive? Will radical islamic terrorism turn them unlectable in the developed world? The periods where its policies enjoyed the most success in America, when the New Deal coalition ruled it, came after immigration restrictions like the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 and the Emergency Quota Act. When these restrictions started to be lifted, culminating on the Immigration Act of 1965, America shifted towards conservative policies that still dominate the agenda right now.

[Tender Branson]

While the left adds Austria (about to lose it) ...

Wrong ... and we have to break it down a bit:

The President is a Green (= left).

The government is a - failed - centrist Grand coalition of the center-left SPÖ and center-right ÖVP.

Both chambers of the parliament have a significant right-wing majority.

---

So, your classification of a current "left" government is wrong: It's very centrist at the moment.

After the Oct. 15 election it is very likely that we'll get a rightwing government though: ÖVP-FPÖ

[Tender Branson]

On the other hand (leaving out the Green President and the 2nd parliamentary chamber - which is made up based on results in recent state elections), the Left in Austria will likely head for a horrible disaster on October 15:

* The SPÖ is polling badly right now and is in massive internal trouble (the campaign manager recently resigned, Salzburg city's mayor got sentenced to a prison term a few days ago because of a badly-managed SWAP-deal about a decade ago, their polling in Upper Austria and other states is disastrous and much more)

* The Greens are an utter disaster right now (see my Austria election thread).

* Pilz is the only hope for the Left and it is by far not guaranteed that he'll attract enough protest voters on election day (they might stick with the FPÖ or vote for Kurz, who knows ?)

---

The Right is heading for 60% (or more), the Left for 40% (or less).

[Mike88]

While the left adds Austria (about to lose it), South Africa (led by a homophobic white genocider), Venezuela (in a civil war), Chile (about to lose it), Portugal and Greece (the most broke country in Europe).

The Portuguese government may be supported by leftwing parties, but it's policies and actions aren't very leftwing, on the contrary. The government has cut spending in levels not seen even in the Troika years and, in terms of economics, the only major policy was the increase of the minimum wage. All the rest, the PS/BE/CDU government hasn't touch in the former PSD/CDS government policies. There's a reason why the PSD and CDS are having a hard time in opposition... Costa is governing, basically, with their shopping list.

Also, the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is from the PSD (center-right).

[Beet]

Russia - the right for nearly 2 decades (and more to come!).

Russia is controlled by the center-left on the Russian political spectrum.

Also, you're conveniently forgetting the Progressive Era (1901-1920).

[Hatman 🍁]

Canada - the globalist left

lol.

/thread

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Ah, pan-national trends, always a fun way for everybody to get pseudoscientific, yo.

[Devout Centrist]

You're putting way too much effort into sh*tposting. It's supposed to be quick and edgy, not walls of text.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I mean yeah, the social democratic left dominated post-war politics, started to collapse after 73, got a second wind in the late 90's/early 00's with the Third Way and then collapsed again after 08. To vastly oversimplify.

While my own country has indicated that the message of social democracy can remain relevant when fighting on its own turf against an overreaching opponent, as a socialist I am extremely worried about the success of the right, even the 'alt right' internationally. China and India alone, two countries governed by cultural nationalist conservatives, make up about 1/3rd of humanity.

[parochial boy]

All these right wing governments explain why the modern world is in such a terrible state tbh

[maga2020]

I mean, the biggest win for the left in 2016 was...the Austrian Presidential Election? An election for a figurehead, really?

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

How many elections have been won by social democrats lately? They have been beaten up everywhere in Europe, Spain held elections on back to back years and the PP won both, in France following disaster Flanby the PS was wiped out and had to hide itself under a third way globalist formerly from the right wing of the party to "win" the election, the Parliamentary left won 45 seats out of 577, the PS itself only 30, barely ahead of the far-left.  PVDA was wiped out in the Netherlands, Corbyn may have won some seats but Labour has lost three straight elections, Schulz effect is gone in Germany and the SPD may not even be part of a grand coalition, in Italy they are in permanent danger of losing to M5S, in Hungary their corruption led to Orban and now they poll behind Jobbik, in Poland they don't exist. The british left didn't want Brexit by a 2:1 margin, they got Brexit.

When the most relevant countries the left control in Europe are Italy, Sweden Portugal and Greece (which is far left, not socialdemocratic), you know they are screwed.

[mvd10]

How is the Netherlands being governed by the right? We currently have a centrist grand coalition between centre-right conservative liberals (VVD) and centre-left social democrats (PvdA). It's obvious that the VVD had much more influence on government policy than the PvdA (even though the VVD was only slightly bigger than the PvdA after the 2012 elections) but I wouldn't really call it a centre-right coalition.

We currently are in the process of government negotiations and it looks like we're heading towards either a VVD-CDA-D66-CU coalition (though we still may very well end up with a minority coalition of VVD-CDA-D66). I guess VVD-CDA-D66-CU would be a centre-right coalition but it only has a 1-seat majority and we shouldn't underestimate the more left-wing factions of CU (Christian left) and D66 (social liberals). The right did win a majority in the parliamentary elections but VVD and CDA don't want to work with the PVV.

[Phony Moderate]

Canada has never had a left-wing government.

[Mike88]

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

Correction: The 2015 Portuguese election was won by the PSD/CDS coalition, not the PS. The coalition won 39% of the vote, the PS won 32%, BE 10% and CDU 8%. What happened next was something that never occurred here. Passos Coelho even formed a 2nd administration but it collapsed because the PS made an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government. But the PS is making CDU/BE support stuff they would never imagine supporting like spending cuts on health, education, defense and other areas, all to reduce the deficit bellow 3%. And the government is continuing to hold a tight control on spending, which is creating tensions between the PS and BE/CDU.

Overall, i wouldn't put Portugal in a left section, i would put it in a more centrist section. António Costa is not leftwing or anything like it, he is just opportunistically leftwing right now to be in power.... In fact when he was minister for Internal affairs, (2005-2007), he was quite to the right of the PS and liked by many PSD politicians.

[Lord Halifax]

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

Correction: The 2015 Portuguese election was won by the PSD/CDS coalition, not the PS. The coalition won 39% of the vote, the PS won 32%, BE 10% and CDU 8%. What happened next was something that never occurred here. Passos Coelho even formed a 2nd administration but it collapsed because the PS made an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government. But the PS is making CDU/BE support stuff they would never image supporting like spending cuts on health, education, defense and other areas, all to reduce the deficit bellow 3%. And the government is continuing to hold a tight control on spending, which is creating tensions between the PS and BE/CDU.

Overall, i wouldn't put Portugal in a left section, i would put it in a more centrist section. António Costa is not leftwing or anything like it, he is just opportunistically leftwing right now to be in power.... In fact when he was minister for Internal affairs, (2005-2007), he was quite to the right of the PS and liked by many PSD politicians.

Regardless of all that the centre-left & left still got more seats than the centre-right & right in 2015, so they won. We aren't talking about individual parties, but "the left".

[Mike88]

In 2017 they won in South Korea after an impeachment, add 2015 and you get wins in Canada and Portugal and that's it.

Correction: The 2015 Portuguese election was won by the PSD/CDS coalition, not the PS. The coalition won 39% of the vote, the PS won 32%, BE 10% and CDU 8%. What happened next was something that never occurred here. Passos Coelho even formed a 2nd administration but it collapsed because the PS made an agreement with BE and CDU to support a PS minority government. But the PS is making CDU/BE support stuff they would never image supporting like spending cuts on health, education, defense and other areas, all to reduce the deficit bellow 3%. And the government is continuing to hold a tight control on spending, which is creating tensions between the PS and BE/CDU.

Overall, i wouldn't put Portugal in a left section, i would put it in a more centrist section. António Costa is not leftwing or anything like it, he is just opportunistically leftwing right now to be in power.... In fact when he was minister for Internal affairs, (2005-2007), he was quite to the right of the PS and liked by many PSD politicians.

Regardless of all that the centre-left & left still got more seats than the centre-right & right in 2015, so they won. We aren't talking about individual parties, but "the left".

True, although we can discuss the historical leanings of PS and CDU/BE and why this time they reached an agreement while in the past they refused, because at least in 5 occasions the PS could had reached an agreement with the leftwing parties, but that's another discussion not appropriate for this topic. But, the underlining is that although there is, indeed, a center-left/leftwing majority, they aren't persuing many left policies, on the contrary.

[Kingpoleon]

Sweden, Italy, Canada, Austria, Portugal, and Indonesia. New Zealand and Australia may change, as might Germany. I should also point out that calling Putin left wing or right wing is insane.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Weirdly enough the New Zealand Left is more anti-immigration than the Nationals atm.

[TheSaint250]

Ah, pan-national trends, always a fun way for everybody to get pseudoscientific, yo.

I stopped believing in pan-national trends after the populist (Trump and Brexit), centrist/European liberal (Macron), and socialist (Corban) trends essentially hit dead ends.

[Beet]

Sweden, Italy, Canada, Austria, Portugal, and Indonesia. New Zealand and Australia may change, as might Germany. I should also point out that calling Putin left wing or right wing is insane.

The ex-KGB agent is obviously center-left. He's allied with Assad, Kim, Xi, all the major left-wing powers, as well as the main anti-American powers like Iran, and the non-aligned powers like India. His main opponents are the right-wing Navalny at home and right-wing Ukrainian nationalists. The only exception is his support for the European and American far-right, but that's just an alliance of convenience to weaken the West. There's a reason why jfern loves him so much.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

The sh*tposting is weak with this one.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

By Beet's logic Fine Gael and Civic Platform are centre-left.

[Zinneke]

How is the Netherlands being governed by the right? We currently have a centrist grand coalition between centre-right conservative liberals (VVD) and centre-left social democrats (PvdA). It's obvious that the VVD had much more influence on government policy than the PvdA (even though the VVD was only slightly bigger than the PvdA after the 2012 elections) but I wouldn't really call it a centre-right coalition.

Well I think you're overreacting to what is a loose interpretation of politics, but compared to other social democratic family members in Western Europe, I would rank the Dutch PvdA as the most neo-liberal.  At least the other parties still have links to the major trade unions and a semblance of a left-wing faction within them. Monasch got exiled from the party, and the race was between the Beavis and Butthead of left-liberal, fratboy politics. No major differences in economic policy.

Then you have Dijsselbloem's comments...

[mvd10]

How is the Netherlands being governed by the right? We currently have a centrist grand coalition between centre-right conservative liberals (VVD) and centre-left social democrats (PvdA). It's obvious that the VVD had much more influence on government policy than the PvdA (even though the VVD was only slightly bigger than the PvdA after the 2012 elections) but I wouldn't really call it a centre-right coalition.

Well I think you're overreacting to what is a loose interpretation of politics, but compared to other social democratic family members in Western Europe, I would rank the Dutch PvdA as the most neo-liberal.  At least the other parties still have links to the major trade unions and a semblance of a left-wing faction within them. Monasch got exiled from the party, and the race was between the Beavis and Butthead of left-liberal, fratboy politics. No major differences in economic policy.

Then you have Dijsselbloem's comments...

Technically Samsom was supposed to finally end Bos/Kok-style third-way politics within the PvdA when he first got elected. Oh, how things change . Like I said the VVD definitely had a disproportionate influence in government policy (even though people thought the PvdA got a better deal in the first few months of the new cabinet, people forget that) and the PvdA probably is among the most austerity-friendly social democratic parties but since OP considers Merkel a leftist who just opposes gay marriage and thinks the Austrian grand coalition is left-wing I don't really think he would consider the previous Dutch government as right-wing.

As for Dijsselbloem: yeah. I would probably welcome him in the VVD . But even Dijsselbloem has been shifting to the left lately. There was some minor controversy about Asscher wanting to raise corporate tax rates while Dijsselbloem actually voiced support for lower corporate tax rates a couple of months earlier. Dijsselbloem now supports Asscher's line on corporate taxes and he has repeatedly said that employers should raise wages in order to stimulate consumption. And bashing Southern Europe is just popular in the Netherlands I guess (Rutte promising to veto any new Greece bailout, which he ofcourse didn't).

[Lachi]

Australia - the right

barely, they can't even govern themselves, let alone the country. The only thing that makes them seem in power is numbers in parliament, not actual ability to govern.