"Podemos Still Doesn't Understand the World is Heading Towards Chaos"

One can scramble about online in vain trying to find an explanation as to why Podemos so far refuses to form a coalition government in Spain with the Socialists. Most of the reporting boils down to a personality struggle between Socialist Party leader Pedro Sanchez and Podemos' Pablo Iglesias. Al Jazeera explains that

In a parliamentary debate on Monday, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias accused the socialists of refusing to offer his party significant positions and wanting them to be "mere decor" in the government.

"We have to talk about content, we have to talk about programmes, and not so much about who will occupy the blue seats," Sanchez retorted on Tuesday, regarding the places reserved for the cabinet in parliament.

Sanchez's effort to form a government is important because the Socialists' performance in Spain's April general election was heralded as a stunning comeback for a mainstream party in the age of Brexit and Trump. As Raphael Minder notes in "Sánchez Struggles to Assemble New Government in Spain":

Mr. Sánchez’s surprisingly strong result in April was seen as a victory for Socialism in Europe. It also came as a relief to backers of the European Union, which he and his party support, at a time when the bloc is embattled by challenges from nationalists and populists, especially in Italy and Eastern Europe.

The political uncertainty in Spain will be watched closely by European partners, particularly President Emmanuel Macron of France. He has been hoping that Mr. Sánchez could prove a strong ally in his project to fortify the European Union as it prepares for Britain’s departure.

At the time I interpreted that the Socialists' big win was due to Sanchez campaigning against austerity and for more social spending. Macron's embrace of Sanchez refutes any idea that the Spanish Socialist Party is going to scrap neoliberalism.

For a better understanding of the issues at stake it is worth reading an interview with Manolo Monereo, "Podemos Must Become an Anti-Establishment Force Again," which appeared last month.

Monereo goes into the rise of Podemos out the Indignados/Occupy movement and how that post-meltdown political moment seems to have lapsed.

Monereo is clear. There is nothing for Podemos in a coalition with the Socialists, other than greater irrelevance. Podemos not only lost over a third of its MPs in the April elections, but it performed even worse in regional elections held in May.

Given this, one would think Iglesias will resist and Sanchez will lose again tomorrow when a second vote is held to form a government.

Monereo ends the interview with a wonderful statement on the neoliberal/neoconservatism fin de siècle in the midst of which we are presently planted:

In Spain, the establishment might be stabilizing itself once more, but the world is heading towards an almost permanent state of chaos. That’s the key thing for me. Pablo taught geopolitics but he doesn’t seem to understand it, what’s happening in the world. The world is heading towards chaos, towards a great new transition that has already begun. We’re about to enter a period similar to the one Europe witnessed between 1875 and 1914 — which saw the failure of the first wave of globalization. Now we’re about to enter the period of failure for the second wave of globalization. This is something Podemos still doesn’t understand.

Democrats are Doomed

For a snapshot that conjures up Jim Jones' Guyana, take a look at "House Democrats, Facing Long Odds, Take Inspiration From the Top" by Emmarie Huettemen and Michael Shear. The story describes a pep rally House Democrats held in Philadelphia yesterday. Obama made a rousing appearance. The message -- please, don't chuckle -- is that the Democratic Party is the shield of the working class, defending the little people from the predatory rich and their rapacious servants in the Republican Party.

A few discreet words were dropped to explain the horrifically poor showing in the 2014 midterms. Democrats in the House apparently forgot to stay on the economic justice message. (If you haven't got around to it yet, take the time to read Thomas Ferguson's masterful assessment of the 2014 midterm election, "Americans Are Sick to Death of Both Parties: Why Our Politics Is in Worse Shape Than We Though.") But fear not, good citizen. The Party of Jackson is going to redouble its efforts to protect me and you and make sure that we get some of that wealth that has been vacuumed up to the 1% during the Obama years:

As the Democratic lawmakers gathered here Thursday, their leaders did not shy from admitting that their postelection strategies bore a strong resemblance to the emphasis they placed on issues like wage inequality before they lost 13 seats in November’s election.

“It is the same and critically important message,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.

Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, said the party did not need to find a new message. Rather, he said, lawmakers and the president need to do a better job focusing that message and motivating turnout of voters next year. “There should have been more unity behind the president’s economic agenda,” Mr. Van Hollen said.

Mr. Obama urged the Democrats in Philadelphia not to be shy in embracing the party’s values, and he promised that he would not relent in pressuring the Republicans.

“We need to stand up and go on offense and not be defensive about what we believe,” Mr. Obama said. “I promise you I’m not going out the last two years sitting on the sidelines. I’m going to be out there making the case every single day.”

This is a picture of an organization that is not in touch with reality; that, or its leaders are lying through their teeth. They must take us for a bunch of witless boobs.

An indication where the Democrats are headed at full speed can be detected in an excellent piece that appears on Naked Capitalism. Hope for Greece, and Perhaps Europe Too, by Mathew D. Rose, an independent journalist living Berlin, encapsulates the situation in Europe that led to Syriza's victory this past Sunday. Obeisance to neoliberal austerity and market fundamentalism has hollowed out Europe's socialist parties:

[Europe’s Social Democrats] are clearly on the decline, as they have lost credibility as a party of the people. Their natural replacement, ergo their most menacing opponent, will be the new parties on the left. The once predominant social democratic party in Greece, PASOK, could not even muster five percent of the vote in Sunday’s elections. The PSOE in Spain is plumbing the 20 percent barrier, things look scarcely better for Germany’s Social Democrats; while in France Hollande and his acolytes seem set on immolating their party. Even in Britain, where the Labour Party was hoping to come out of the upcoming elections as the strongest party, it has not only lost one of its heartlands, Scotland, to the Scottish National Party, but is facing a surge in England by the Greens, who are adopting an ever increasing leftist agenda and brazenly showing solidarity with Syriza and its programme.

One could add Sinn Féin to this list of authentic leftist parties rising to challenging the corrupt neoliberal hegemony.

As it stands now, I think Scott Walker wins the general election in 2016. And then woe unto us all. To prevent this from happening the Democrats will have to reinvent themselves pronto. And nothing points to this happening.