One of the things that happens when you surrender your national sovereignty: You play hell getting it back. "Eurozone crosses Rubicon as Portugal's anti-euro Left banned from power."
Readers know that I have neither sympathy nor ideological agreement with collectivism and collectivists, but I almost feel sorry for these folks. They won an election and it doesn't mean a thing: "Constitutional crisis looms after anti-austerity Left is denied parliamentary prerogative to form a majority government."
"Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe’s monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest. Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal’s constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika. . . Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership."
". . . Mr Cavaco Silva is effectively using his office to impose a reactionary ideological agenda, in the interests of creditors and the EMU establishment, and dressing it up with remarkable Chutzpah as a defence of democracy. . . This is a dangerous demarche. The Portuguese conservatives and their media allies behave as if the Left has no legitimate right to take power, and must be held in check by any means. These reflexes are familiar – and chilling – to anybody familiar with 20th century Iberian history, or indeed Latin America. That it is being done in the name of the euro is entirely to be expected. Greece’s Syriza movement, Europe’s first radical-Left government in Europe since the Second World War, was crushed into submission for daring to confront eurozone ideology. Now the Portuguese Left is running into a variant of the same meat-grinder."
Europe’s socialists face a dilemma. They are at last waking up to the unpleasant truth that monetary union is an authoritarian Right-wing enterprise that has slipped its democratic leash, yet if they act on this insight in any way they risk being prevented from taking power. Brussels really has created a monster.
7 comments:
"Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership."
Hmmmm. Doesn't sound like a government that exists to serve the people, now does it? One wonders whether or not the Portuguese will tolerate this.
"Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership."
So, tell me how that won't eventually end in a shooting war?
Third parties have effectively been banned in the USA since Bush 1.
This is the kind of things that start wars.
This is the fornication that breeds rebellion.
With all the new illegal democrat voters, real Americans could be politically sidelined like the Europeans until after the next civil war. We are going to have to shoot our way back to freedom and liberty.
Democracy actually should take second place...to liberty. That's why the American founders put a lot of anti-democratic features into the constitution. Never confuse democracy with liberty. They are near opposites. Europeans however are incapable of understanding that simple truth, as are more and more Americans.
Also, the excerpted quote nicely illustrates the European concept of "right verses left". The "right" is Fascist and the "left" is communist. So for over 100 years the Europeans have been given the choice between two forms of Marxism, representing the opposite boundaries of the entire political spectrum, as though there were no other options even to be considered.
Be very very careful then, when you use those terms, "right" and "left". They don't work in America without some very careful explanation. It would be better to avoid using them. They are Marxist terms, used for obfuscation.
I prefer "libertarian" verses "authoritarian" as more descriptive terms. Both the "right" and the "left" as used in Europe are authoritarian. You will note also that both the Democrat Party and the Republican Party in America are authoritarian. So we've largely adopted the European false choice without realizing it or even thinking about it. -- Lyle
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