Moderation as an Antidote to Extremism

Moderation as an Antidote to Extremism

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

“Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.”

Tacitus

One of the many lies told during campaign by Donald Trump was about USA's tax rate being one of the highest in the world, in reality, the USA are far from that questionable "honor", which as a matter of fact goes to Denmark, yes, the Nordic country that foolishly Bernie Sanders declared as a “social democracy”, well, Sanders is certainly not a social democrat, he is in love with old style socialism, in the same wavelength of UK´s Jeremy Corbyn, France´s Jean Luc Mélenchon, Spain´s Pablo Iglesias, and México´s Andrés López, all of them big fans of deceased Venezuela´s dictator Hugo Chávez´s “Socialismo del Siglo XXI”; Denmark, neither is neither a socialist country nor a “social democracy”, as Sanders wished it to be, prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen once angrily denied Sanders’  assumption and clarified that they were they are a market economy, very far from a socialist planned economy, the country currently ruled by a center right coalition, is a living proof of the false idea of Nordic countries being socialists (a myth dispersed by obsolete socialists), even discarding social democracy a couple of years ago, when they started looking for more benefits for their countries ‘economies and in order to confront an the increasingly heavy weight of their too generous welfare state, aggravated by an aging population, some of them retired from work, creating a heavier burden to the economically active population, decreasing year by year, the latest news on this permanent adjustment on their economic policies is a major tax cut rate on all income groups in order to help population save more for retirement, and to make business more competitive, a policy not to in synchrony with a “left wing” country, or even for a “social democracy”, but one that equals the ones from other center right ruled countries from the region, trying to conceal a free market, a competitive economy (right wing) without compromising too much their concerns for citizens´ levels of social security they are famous for, finding perhaps, now a model in Angela Merkel´s Germany, who has managed to keep the country going on in the middle of a world political crisis.

In Germany, social democracy (real social democracy) is not seen as a true contender against the “social market economy” of Angela Merkel´s ruling coalition, in fact, Merkel managed to keep democratic power by making a grand coalition between right and left wing parties, putting moderation and efficiency in front (and putting ideologies to the side) in order to counter balance the advances of the extremist far right wing represented by the AfD and the left wing SPD (social democrats), Merkel´s formula for success has been his tendency to add up certain “progressist” policies to her conservative base, successfully adopting same sex marriage initiatives and migrant inclusion which are even taboo for left and right wing parties in Germany, giving her the edge over his closest rival for the next elections, Martin Schulz, who was not able to convince potential voters of his political proposal during a recent debate, Merkel has made moderation one of her strongest assets against populism and against radical right and left wing parties (with Schultz even suggesting to cut diplomatic ties with Turkey), even managing to defeat the blinding charms of social democracy, Merkel´s successful administration has solved in convincing manners tough conflicts like migration and terrorism, setting an example for other European countries to follow (also becoming an interesting and strong counter balance against Trump and Putin´s advances); with unemployment numbers falling, wages rising and consumer confidence going high, is almost a fact that Merkel will win (for the fourth time!) elections again this month, even managing to get Schultz´s party as an ally once again. 

In México, a Grand Democratic Front has been initiated by three parties, one right wing, National Action Party (PAN) and two left wing parties Democratic Revolution Party and Citizen Movement (PRD and MC), a previously unseen broad coalition of left and right rarely seen in México towards a presidential election since 1988 when major left wing leader Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas rejected a major coalition with right wing leader Manuel J. Clouthier, these days to talk about left wing and right wings is almost anachronistic, coalitions and alliances had been made in Chile, Uruguay and Germany, we had the chance of been pioneers in 1988, but we missed the opportunity, but we must consider that the mean of such coalitions should be to bring us a more efficient way of rule and creating a better consensus, and not just a vehicle for winning an election or keeping the minimum number of votes to maintain the registry of the party, there must be a well-defined common agenda with checks and balances, and a candidate flexible enough to appeal to the various united fronts, internally elected by a transparent democratic process, in a world menaced by rampant extremism, moderation makes more sense as an antidote, it makes more sense to go beyond the realm of the left and right wings, and to reject the disjunctive between competition and cooperation, these days it makes more sense to have the best of both worlds

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