The New Way?

There's a lot of really interesting politic going on in the countries of South America these days. New nemesis of the Bush administration, Hugo Chavez, today announced he was expelling a ranking US military officer from Venezuela for allegedly spying. Its unclear what the US reaction will be, although we have quite naturally denied any possible wrong-doing.

Chavez represents what I would call the 'old way' of the left-leaning Latin America. His abrasive, isolationist, proletariat v. bourgeoisie style just doesn't cut it in a world where the terrible evil of the Communist state has already been defeated (except for China, of course, but that's a different post). When the whole middle class can now be categorized as at least semi-bourgeoisie, its hard to keep fighting so literally for the little guy. Plus, giant state-owned conglomerates have proven equally, if not more, inefficient than free-market corporations.

That's not to say that people who believe there is an imbalance in the world's economy should just shrug their shoulders and go back to work in the west virginia mines. Fear not ye labourers, the New Way has emerged!




The election of Michelle Bachelet in Chile marks what may be a new twist on socialism (or what used to be called socialism anyway). Here we have a center-left candidate who generally believes in free markets, realizes their shortcomings, and therefore appreciates the ability of a substantial State to help remove inequalities and make peoples daily lives a little bit better. There really is a middle ground between State-owned Monopolies and having no State to speak of (as some in the US would have it).

To be fair, the ideas of communism and socialism were allowed more 'room to grow' in places like South America than they were here in the US. I think here this kind of political strategy would be called "populist" and obviously one could argue that Kerry lost the last election on a populist platform. I rather think Kerry lost the election because he was too articulate for his own good. You just never felt he really believed anything he was saying as a candidate.

Ask your neighbor what he would think about a job where he was more than a .0009% stakeholder. Or if she thinks the government has a responsibility to help provide certain of the most basic needs to individuals. Or if they think being able to effectively compete for jobs in a global economy is important. My money is that most people would be inclined to a positive reaction.

The left doesn't all have to be about gay marriage, or raising your taxes, or obstructionist trade policies. There are sustainable, alternative theories that will appeal to the American public. Now we just need a candidate with the courage to lead a "New Way."

Obama anyone?