At 15:04 28-2-01 -0800, Kristin Ruhle wrote:
>I've been told by a British acquaintance that Gray Davis (CA gov) is mor
>socialistic than Tony Blair; that the old line Labour party "big
>government" type thing is out of fashion in Britain; that George Bush's
>speech sounded like something that could have come from "New Labour!"
I heard about that speech on the evening news, and I'm quite puzzled.
Apparently, Bush wants to improve health care, education and <something I
forgot>, and build that damned anti-missile shield (the Reagan Paranoia
Strikes Again!). Yet at the same time he wants to significantly lower
taxes. Health care and education already suffer from lack of funding; how
is he going to improve them (which will cost loads of money) if at the same
time he lowers taxes, and wants to waste billions of the tax-payers'
dollars on SDI?
>Most Americans have the stereotype of
>Europe as being very socialist and the US very free market.
Europe is not socialist; we only look like that because we're not as
right-winged as the US. Then there is the difference in the definition of
socialist: by American standards, anything on the left of the Democrats is
labeled socialist, while in Europe only the far left is called socialist.
Europe has been drifting to the right in the last three decades: we first
went from socialist to social-democratic, but most parties that call
themselves social-democratic (that is, modest left-winged) have by now
become parties of the political middle ground, with the already
right-winged parties shifting even further to the right. We're moving
towards a situation that resembles the US, with the major parties being
either right-winged or even more right-winged.
For good measure, let me throw in some of the stereotypes we have of the
US: very right-winged, religious-fanatic, intend on world domination, arrogant.
And that's just the stereotypes of the US; any idea about what stereotypes
we have of its citizens?
>(Well this buying the utilities, if that isn't socialist...)
<paranoia>
See, there's the evidence! US politics has been infiltrated by the
communists! The commies are taking over the country!
</paranoia>
>So is California more socialist than the UK?
Quite possible. The "New Labour" party seems to have abandonded most of its
socialist and social-democratic principles, so California only has to be a
little bit left-winged to be more socialist than the UK. But I think our UK
members are more qualified than I am to comment on that.
Jeroen
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