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> I struggle to even describe the Wagenknecht party as left-wing despite her personal ideological origins. I am in the middle of her book [1] and I have the sa

by braza 3y ago

> I struggle to even describe the Wagenknecht party as left-wing despite her personal ideological origins. I am in the middle of her book [1] and I have the same issue as well. From what I understood: Her views are more weighted to what we call in English as "Labor Party" +_Entwicklungspolitik_ + _Gewerkschaft_ where she saw that the left went too far on the identity politics and ideological battles and lost ground to a big chunk of demographics in Germany (median white person, with the income between 22-42K EUR/year, working for industry or adjacencies). For the internal politics me makes sense what she is doing - and I think why she will be over the 5% hurdle next election as well - but the issue that I see is on the external policy where she doubles down on the duality/dubious Germany foreign policy to make friends with everyone and not having a clear path in terms of partnerships and alliances. Compared with 2010-12 where FDP and AfD has clear paths and ideological and political directions, the issue that I see with the BSW is that for now, it's a blank check that the voters are giving to her and once they are on the Parlament no one knows how the BSW will swings. [1] - https://www.amazon.de/Die-Selbstgerechten-Gegenprogramm-Gemeinsinn-Zusammenhalt/dp/3593513900 https://www.amazon.de/Die-Selbstgerechten-Gegenprogramm-Geme...

hnbad 3y ago
As an aside: I love how the people complaining about "identity politics" are often the ones engaging in a blatant form of identity politics by painting a picture of a white median income working class person who doesn't care about social justice (which by the way is often an ahistorical caricature and is often used as a way to infantilize industrial workers, especially when the trope is invoked by politicians with academic backgrounds themselves). That said, I'd say both the FDP and AfD heavily engage in hollow populism and that has benefited both to some extent so far and seems to be what BSW wants to copy. The AfD uses a veneer of middle-class conservativsm to transport far-right extremist ideas, the FDP uses progressivism and futurism to transport very narrow interest group politics (i.e. despite all its bold claims in practice it tends to mostly do exactly what its core donor demographic wants and will abandon its supposed ideals if they gain too much traction). I'm not sure what it is the BSW is trying to transport but they seem to have adopted a shell that is a loose amalgamation of an anti-progressive, anti-Green reactionary sentiment mixed with a vague pro-worker veneer that is at the same time offset by a lot of pro-business ("innovation", "future technologies", etc) language. Just an example: in the party's programme they go to great lengths to explain that the Bundeswehr should not follow US interests (i.e. anti-NATO without committing to an explicit position of leaving NATO), should not maintain presences in foreign countries (i.e. no participation in joint operations), should not receive funding that is offset with cuts to social welfare (i.e. less funding?) but must also be "equipped appropriately" to defend Germany (i.e. more funding?). This reads more like a political Rorschach test than a political position: you can either interpret it as being anti-NATO, pro-Russia and asking for cuts to military spending or as being isolationist and asking for more accountability in military spending or as supporting the idea of a European military organization as a counter-balance to foreign interests or ... and so on. I don't know what it is but I don't have the feeling I'd get a straight answer from her or her supporters either.

by braza 3y ago

hnbad 3y ago

As an aside: I love how the people complaining about "identity politics" are often the ones engaging in a blatant form of identity politics by painting a picture of a white median income working class person who doesn't care about social justice (which by the way is often an ahistorical caricature and is often used as a way to infantilize industrial workers, especially when the trope is invoked by politicians with academic backgrounds themselves). That said, I'd say both the FDP and AfD heavily engage in hollow populism and that has benefited both to some extent so far and seems to be what BSW wants to copy. The AfD uses a veneer of middle-class conservativsm to transport far-right extremist ideas, the FDP uses progressivism and futurism to transport very narrow interest group politics (i.e. despite all its bold claims in practice it tends to mostly do exactly what its core donor demographic wants and will abandon its supposed ideals if they gain too much traction). I'm not sure what it is the BSW is trying to transport but they seem to have adopted a shell that is a loose amalgamation of an anti-progressive, anti-Green reactionary sentiment mixed with a vague pro-worker veneer that is at the same time offset by a lot of pro-business ("innovation", "future technologies", etc) language. Just an example: in the party's programme they go to great lengths to explain that the Bundeswehr should not follow US interests (i.e. anti-NATO without committing to an explicit position of leaving NATO), should not maintain presences in foreign countries (i.e. no participation in joint operations), should not receive funding that is offset with cuts to social welfare (i.e. less funding?) but must also be "equipped appropriately" to defend Germany (i.e. more funding?). This reads more like a political Rorschach test than a political position: you can either interpret it as being anti-NATO, pro-Russia and asking for cuts to military spending or as being isolationist and asking for more accountability in military spending or as supporting the idea of a European military organization as a counter-balance to foreign interests or ... and so on. I don't know what it is but I don't have the feeling I'd get a straight answer from her or her supporters either.