More on "digitalization" as a political buzzword

Jens Berger takes down a piece of horse-race journalism in Die Schulz-Story im SPIEGEL – postpolitischer Journalismus Nachdenkseiten 10.10.2017. The topic is a cover story on the disastrous candidacy of Martin Schultz as the Chancellor candidate of the Social Democratic party (SPD) in last month's German parliamentary elections. Berger brings in the "digitialization" concept in describing:

"... die Parallelwelt des SPIEGEL, in der es die wichtigste Aufgabe der Sozialdemokratie ist, „Antworten auf das Zeitalter der Digitalisierung“ zu finden und die Union unter Merkel zu einer sozialdemokratischen Partei geworden ist. In der Filterblase des Hauptstadtjournalismus werden solche Dinge wirklich geglaubt."

[... the parallel world of Der Spiegel, in which the most important task of the Social Democracy [the SPD] is to find "answers to the age of digitalization" and {in which} the Union [CDU] under Merkel has become a social democratic party. In the filter bubble of capital city [Berlin] journalism, such things are really believed."]

Berger complains that only one paragraph in the 17-page Spiegel cover story is devoted to policy matters. And that the controversial Hartz IV neoliber "reform" implemented during the red-green coalition government headed by SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, isn't even mentioned.

Berger's judgment:

Das ist Journalismus aus einer postfaktischen Zeit – einer Zeit, in der Fakten und Inhalte gar keine Rolle mehr spielen und die Erzählung selbst im Mittelpunkt steht. Nicht der Star ist der Star, sondern die Story. So kann man dann auch über Politik schreiben, ohne über Politik zu schreiben. Nennen wir es postpolitischen Journalismus.

[That is journalism of a post-fact time - a time in which facts and content don't play any role at all and the telling of the story itself stands in the middle point. The star isn't the star, but rather the story. In the same way, one can write about politics without also writing about policy. Let's call it post-political journalism.]

There's a wordplay in the German that's hard to duplicate in Enlgish: "Politik" in German means both "politics" and "policy."

I wonder if "post-democracy" journalism is also a concept whose time has arrived.

Conservatives celebrate together in Berlin?

Barack Obama showed up in Berlin for a joint appearance with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Obama receives rock star welcome in Germany as he appears alongside Merkel and says 'we can't hide behind a wall' Daily Mail AP/Daily Mail 05/25/2017.

Supposedly, the timing of the event being just before Merkel is scheduled to meet with Bush in Brussels was entirely coincidental. Barack Obama tells Berlin audience: ‘We can’t hide behind a wall’ Guardian 05/25/2017

Barack Obama joins Angela Merkel in Berlin Guardian Wires 05/25/2017:

National elections are coming in Germany on September 24. That's four months away, so this isn't exactly like Obama joining Merkel on the campaign trail. But almost. Of course, we know it's only those wicked Russians who interfere in other countries' election.

I recall that Obama shortly after his election as President commented that in the European context he would be considered a conservative. I thought of that when I read the news about his meeting with Merkel.

Angela Merkel seems to have a very good image in the United States. Her Compassionate Pastor's Daughter posturing seems to have convinced much of the American media. But the hallmark of her tenure has been to respond to the euro crisis in the wake of the economic crisis that began in 2007-8 with Herbert Hoover/Heinrich Brüning econmic policies that severely damaged countries like Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain and Portugal. She has recast the European Union as being a German-dominated political bloc suffering from a severe "democratic deficit."

Her welcoming of large numbers of refugees into Germany in 2015 looked very good to liberal-minded people. And her praise for that is well deserved.

But the refugee inflow was at crisis levels already in 2011, and Merkel handled it with her signature extend-and-pretend style, which lead to the acute phase that made it a worldwide scandal in 2015. The problem is far from over. And she has basically outsourced it to Turkey and Greece. And the conditions in the refugee camps in both countries has been downright nightmarish for many.

The refugee crisis is back in extend-and-pretend mode. It's not going away. And it constantly generates humanitarian horrors: Dozens on sinking dinghy lost at sea, rescued migrants tell UNHCR AFP/Japan Times 05/24/2017 (this week); Refugee crisis: Dozens feared dead in new boat sinking off Libyan coast The Independent 05/26/2016 (almost exactly a year ago); UNICEF: Number of unaccompanied refugee children soars Aljazeera 05/18/2016; Giorgos Christides, Unaccompanied Migrant Boys in Greece Turn to Prostitution Spiegel International 05/19/2017.

Obama and Merkel are both major examples of liberal-minded proponents of TINA (There Is No Alternative) neoliberal economic policies and the suspicion of popular democratic participation. Obama's initial stimulus package was a significant departure from the neoliberal playbook. And it was enough to push the economy back to recovery and made the US recovery from the Great Recession a healthier one than the eurozone experienced. But he spent the rest of his term advocating cuts to Social Security and Medicare and hopelessly trying to work out bipartisan budget deals that resulted in things like the sequester that achieved far more Republican than Democratic goals. Obama's health care plan was a big improvement and also added a stimulative effect to the economy. But it didn't even get the United State as far down the road as Germany in the health care system.

Obama was the head of the American center-left party. And he left office with his party at historic lows in office-holding strength. Merkel is the head of the center-right party in Germany (CDU), with the center-left SPD as her junior coalition partner. The results for the German center-left party looks to be about the same as for the American Democrats. The SPD had been doing well in the polls earlier in the year. But their prospects aren't looking so good lately. (Umfrage sieht Mehrheit für Schwarz-Gelb im Bund FAZ 23.05.2017)

Merkel's austerity policies should be on trial in this month's European elections

With the European Parliamentary election coming in two weeks on May 25, a new poll shows that 70% of Austrians think the EU is on the wrong course.

Conrad Seidl, 70 Prozent der Österreicher sehen EU auf falschem Kurs Der Standard 11.05.2014

And it's not just Austria. It's France, too: Marcel Leubecher, Nur jeder dritte Franzose will in der EU bleiben Die Welt 12.05.2014. The British company YouGov did a poll for Die Welt that found only 34% in France saying they favored continuing French membership in the EU, with 33% opposed and 33% offering no opinion. This is not good news for the EU!

In non-eurozone member, the pool found 39% favoring, 38% opposed and 23% giving no opinion either way.

In Germany, where Angela Merkel has so far successfully made the euro a tool that favors Germany while devastating the economies of Cyrus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, 57% support staying in the EU, 23% oppose and 20% express no opinion.

And what are the two leading candidates for the European conservative and Social Democratic parties, the center-right and the center-left, proposing to do about this dire situation? Repeat clicheed bromides, apparently.

Profil intereviews them, Europawahlen: Martin Schulz und Jean-Claude Juncker im Interview Profil 10.05.2014, Angie-bot Juncker for the conservatives, Angei-bot Schulz for the social democrats.

At this point, the only meaningful pro-Europe (pro-EU) position is one that opposes Angela Merkel's austerity policies. The rest is hot air at this juncture.

And both Juncker and Schulz offer hot air. Juncker wants Cyrus, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain to soldier on with the ruinous austerity policies that have demonstrated their devastating consequences since 2009 and their failure to achieve even their stated purpose of reducing the burden of public debt relative to GDP about as clearly as any economic theory could prove or discredit itself. For Juncker to say what the EU needs to continue with "reforms," the currently poisoned term Angie-bots use to refer to her Herbert Hoover/Heinrich Brüning shows a complete lack of seriousness in preserving the EU as a democratic institution. It can continue on this road, but only by severely curbing the democratic part.

Schultz' position is basically the same, only slightly more worker-friendly on the margins, and there's no real reason to take those qualifications seriously. Any leader that is seriously pro-Europe at this point has to be opposed to Merkel's austerity politics. Schultz and his German Social Democratic Party (SPD) support them, and has since 2009. The SPD is currently the junior partner in Merkel's Grand Coalition (GroKo) government, completely in support of the basic lines of her Hoover/Brüning austerity policies. Juncker and Schultz are loyal servants of Merkel and the business lobbies.

I sometimes surprise myself at how harshly I'm judging the SPD in particular. But it's hard to come to any other conclusion. Because the only meaningful pro-Europe (pro-EU) position is one that opposes Angela Merkel's austerity policies.

Schultz repeats the left-neoliberal bromides that we've been hearing from US Democrats for two decades now. We need better jobs, so we should coddle business with less regulation and lower taxes. Especially small and medium businesses. (Otherwise you might think we're just corporates 'hos.) We need "targeted investment, research and development and a reindustrialization strategy," Angie-bot Schultz says. Also we'll say "justice" now and then. And we'll at least talk about cracking down on tax evaders.

Meanwhile, in the real existing eurozone deflation/lowflation gas taken hold, i.e., prolonged economic stagnation. Wolfgang Münchau reads the ECB's latest positions as indicating they are about to start charging actual negative interest, i.e., charging banks money to hold their money for them. (Wie negative Zinsen die Krisenkosten verschleiern Spiegel Online 12.05.2014) This is in hopes of getting banks to loan more money to businesses. But businesses need demand for their products and services to expand. Prolonged periods of stagnation do not provide those. And Merkel's Hoover/Brüning austerity policies offer no short-term hope for jump-starting an economy stuck in deflation/lowflation.

As Paul Krugman warns, "Exiting deflation or lowflation is really, really hard, which is why you never want to go there." (Already in the Lowflation Trap 05/10/2014)

Austria's lead Social Democratic candidate for the national representation in the European Parliament, Eugen Freund, has a problemita. His name popped up in the files of the old Yugoslavian secret police as a potential contact. But it's all pretty vague and he roundly denies having had any such contacts. (Freund weist Vorwurf der Geheimdienstmitarbeit zurück Der Standard 12. Mai 2014)


Tags: angela merkel, austerity economics, eu, euro, european election, european union, jean-claude juncker, martin schultz

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, "Merkel's darling"

That's what a Spiegel Online headline calls him: Florian Gathmann, Kabinettsklausur in Meseberg: Merkels Liebling 23.01.2014. Vice Chancellor Sigmar "Sigi Pop" Gabriel, the leading SPD official in his Party's pathetic junior partnership in a second Grand Coalition government with Merkel, makes Barack Obama looks like a fiery partisan. And for Obama, Bipartisanship is the Holy Grail.

Gabriel as the SPD's chief candidate last year was scarcely pretending to be campaigning for an SPD-led government. He obviously was hoping for what he got, a junior partnership in a Grand Coalition headed by Merkel. Nor did he pursue the possibility of a coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party, which together have a majority of seats in the German Bundesrat.

In theory, the SPD should be building a distinct political profile in the Grand Coalition, especially with European Parliamentary elections coming in May. But he doesn't seem to care much about that.

Horand Knaup und Veit Medick report on tensions within the parties of the eastern German statements and the current SPD leadership, Zerstrittene SPD-Landesverbände: Gabriels heikler Ost-West-Konflikt Spiegel Online 24.01.2014. Not that such a thing is unusual in itself. They are complaining that the western states dominate with the SPD and giving their eastern Genossen (the word for "comrade" still ritually used by the SPD on official occasions) short shrift in party affairs.

Knaup and Medick don't suggest that any kind of formal Party schism is in the works. But if there is a serious crack-up in eurozone in the next four years with very negative economic repercussions for Germany while the SPD is being the loyal and supportive partner of Angela Merkel's policies that have put matters on that track, the SPD might not look like as good a home for aspiring office-holders as it did even in 2013.

The SPD has just nominated Martin Schultz as its candidate for the European Commission Presidency. He is current President of the European Parliament. I have previously referred to him as an Angiebot and a worthless gasbag working in the tradition of other SPD figures such as Gustav Noske and Thilo Sarrazin. See my post SPD support for Angie's Post-Democracy 2.0 plan for Greece 01/28/2012. I have not had occasion in the last two years to revise my opinion of him in a more positive direction.

The SPD's European delegates' conference in Berlin has just elected him by a 97.3% vote for that position. They expect him to be elected in a convention in Rome in March as the lead candidate for all the EU social-democratic parties. (Martin Schulz führt SPD in Europawahlkampf: 97,3 Prozent Zustimmung Kölner Stadt Anzeiger 26.01.2014)

Why doesn't the SPD make a European election campaign for the May 25 elections with a poster of Schultz and Angie standing together and smiling. Or maybe just put Angie's picture up with the slogan, "Angie, wir lieben dich!" ("Angie, we love you!")

Or maybe they could borrow one of Yannis Ioannou's cartoon's, like this "... Καθαρή Ευρώπη" ("... European Net") one of 01/23/2014, and say "THIS is what the social democrats stand for!" Ioannou here shows the current six-month Greek Presidency of the EU pounding the drowning victims of Merkel-nomics down into the water as they temporarily run the good ship "Aryan Union" on behalf of Angie, standing on the shore with her "German Union" sash applauding their performance, accompanied by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and SPD Vice Chanellor Sigmar "Sigi Pop" Gabriel.

Tags: angela merkel, austerity economics, eu, euro, european union, greece, martin schultz, spd