How the left has been left-behind by the right

First there was Sarah Palin

Palin on politicians and crony capitalism "I'm not for sale"

On crony capitalism: "So many of them, they arrive in Washington, DC of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy. Well, it's because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money, to taxpayer dollars."

"They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street. And their corporate cronies. And to reward contributors. And to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this. It's called 'corporate crony capitalism,'" she said.

"Like you, I'm not for sale. I believe in the free market and that is why I detest crony capitalism. And Barack Obama has shown us cronyism on steroids. It will lead to our downfall if we don't stop it now."

OK, I don't trust Sarah Palin one bit. I don't think she believes a word of what she is quoted as saying. I'm not even sure she understands what she is saying.

But I do think the sentiments she expressed are correct. What we have in most Western countries today is not free markets. What we have is crony capitalism.

What I did not expect was to hear a member of the Republican Party express these views. The Republican Party today is, after all, the political arm of the crony capitalists.

But then we have this from Charles Moore, former editor of Britain's Telegraph newspaper.

I'm starting to thing that the left might actually be right

 

It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls "the free market" is actually a set-up.

The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.

Note, this is the editor of The Telegraph. The Telegraph is not usually thought of as a Bolshevik rag.

Even The Spectator is getting into the act.

The undeserving rich

Ever since the Elizabethan poor laws - if not before - society has tended to divide the poor into the deserving and the undeserving. But, as I write in this week's magazine, our politicians are now taking aim at a new category, the undeserving rich.

Then I saw this bit of well-deserved self-flagellation in The Guardian which brought it all together.