Managed democracy, brought to you by neoliberalism.
One of the primary functions of neoliberalism is to remove economic policy from the democratic sphere, so it's no longer possible to vote for anything except neoliberal economic policy. This, now we are faced with a choice between Starmer & Sunak, is "the triumph of centrism" according to George Osborne. A triumph because all other options are defeated and removed from voter reach.
Both major parties in the UK agree on the fundamentals of how to run the economy, (privatisation & outsourcing, austerity, marketisation, anti-union legislation etc.), they just disagree on some smaller points of detail such as which party's donors should get the lucrative NHS contracts.
The Wikipedia definition for a managed democracy states that "such hybrid regimes are legitimized by elections that are free and fair, but do not change the state's policies, motives, and goals." How is that not a description of this country, or the US and many other major countries for that matter? Red or blue, things carry on much the same. Same neoliberal economics, same foreign policy, same military posturing, same allies, same enemies, same approach to business and workers.
One thing the red/blue divide is very good for is getting people to support policies they would absolutely loathe if suggested by the other party. So for the last few weeks I've had Labour supporters explain to me that Wes Streeting will only *temporarily privatise* the NHS. And they're ok with that. They're not even interested in any details on when the temporary privatisation is supposed to stop. It's fine because "we have to win". But what are you winning? At least when the Tories are in charge you don't have to make excuses for their terrible policies.
For the time being at least, there is little that can be achieved through electoral politics, the real fight is in unionising your workplace, organising among renters, and building community power, taking direct action on climate change, and holding the bastards who govern us, red, white or blue, to account for their corruption & bigotry, whether they're on "your side" or not.
Que se vayan todos / They all must go
Printable poster:
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