When people know you are on their side sometimes winning does not matter, what matters is that people understand that you are on their side and doing the best that you can.
A Metron Analysis poll published on Saturday showed popularity ratings for the prime minister’s radical left Syriza party at an all-time high: from the almost 36% it won in snap polls on 25 January, support for Syriza has jumped to 47.6%, a record for a movement that only three years ago was on margins of Greek politics.
People are not stupid as many would like to believe, they do not expect miracles, what we do expect however is effort.
“They’ve given us our voice back,” said Dimitris Stathokostopoulos, a prominent entrepreneur. “For the first time there’s a feeling that we have a government that is defending our interests. Germany needs to calm down. Austerity hasn’t worked. Wherever it has been applied it has spawned poverty, unemployment, absolute catastrophe.”
Why is Elizabeth Warren so popular? Bernie Sanders? It is not because we expect them to wave a magic wand, but we know they are on our side. Barack Obama was elected because he was perceived to be willing to do the same, that is why the Republicans became so desperate to block government. Imagine their distress if he had succeeded. The reason he was re-elected was that the majority believed he was at least trying and that Romney would not lift one finger to help. The mistake the Democratic Party made from day one was to basically run away from the President at every opertunity, the blue dogs were pretty much wiped out, and the senate lost because of it.
Yet the government is walking a fine line and its popularity could as easily evaporate if it is perceived not to deliver. Accusations of political incompetence, narcissism and moral high-handedness are already rife.
A yes, the Republican Party tactic, smear. Not that any other political party in Greece lifted a finger to resist austerity and to fight corruption when they had the chance. In turn they will do everything in their power to make sure Syriza fails, after all if that happens, they might win next time.
When you are fooled into voting against your own interests for a party that doesn't give a damn about you, you get the fiasco that is the Republican Party in the House and Senate today. They also win by turning as many people off politics as possible by making damn sure government is ridiculed and functions poorly for all but the so very few.
When the banks and financial institutions failed so badly what did our politicians do? They bailed them out and handed power straight back to them, Austerity became the byword for asset stripping, just so long as the banks got their pound of flesh, blood and all. As with all cyclical recessions the rich were initially hit the hardest yet in the end profited the most, no concern about the maximum wage is ever shown, it's the minimum that ruins the economy. When the weak fail they are forgotten, when the powerful fail they are protected, bailed out and allowed to continue the pillage.
Austerity is in essence government by the bankers, the same bankers that sat by and applauded the pre-Great Recession feeding frenzy. The same people who played around with the financial tools that brought down people and governments, the same tools that created the hyper rich. Businesses and the rich were given tax cuts that increased the debt, the poorer were encouraged to borrow ever more often way beyond their means to repay if things turned bad. So when the crash inevitably occurred, governments had massive debts and so did many people, so Austerity was devised to make them pay. Give up your rights to self determination, give up your health care system, work longer, reduce pensions and the social safety net. Increase unemployment, increase insecurity and frighten people enough so that they believe the only way forward is to support the wealthiest, there is no alternative, and if you can, find someone to blame, immigrants.
The rise in the right across Europe is directly tied to this, they alone took up the populist mantel, they alone said they would stand up and fight, and they knew who to blame, foreigners. The left were left in the starting blocks, in complete confusion, well after all previously they had triangulated so much, it was hard to tell left from right. In essence the left became compassionate conservatives, socially liberal, economically locked in.
The economy has been designed to run on debt, education, housing, cars to get to work. Ever more expensive, yet wages stagnate. So work longer, expect less when you retire. Pay more for health care, tighten your belts and watch the rich play, both in real life and TV. There is only one way.. Once upon a time we thought "the people" mattered.
Just a thought.